Niger Delta: 60-Day Truce Marks a Ripe Time for Progress Towards Peace

Posted July 28, 2009

On May 13, Nigerian forces launched an attack in the Niger Delta that resulted in the displacement of 30,000 people.  The villages of Oporoza and Okerenkoko were attacked by military men with heavy machine-guns, prompting the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to call for an all-out war.  Over a month later, the Joint Task Force (JTF) of the Nigerian government continues to patrol the area, making it impossible for community members to return home and to get access to food and water.

On July 13, the militant group, MEND openly took responsibility for an attack on the Atlas Cove jetty in Lagos the day prior.  The attack killed five people in a key port, prompting concerns over access to the oil supply in the country.  MEND spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, stated that the attack was part of a “two pronged approach”, dialogue and increasing attacks as tactics in the negotiations process towards peace.  By heightening the attacks, MEND hopes to send a message to the Nigerian government that its efforts to negotiate peace are not because it is weakening or surrendering.  Although the militants do not have the capacity to defeat the JTF, the JTF recognizes that militants do have the capability of destabilizing the oil industry in the country.  They have already been able to cut Nigeria’s oil exports by a whopping 40%, or as much as 1 million barrels a day.

While the attack in Lagos was taking place, one of MEND’s leaders, Henry Okah, was released from prison after the Federal Government withdrew a case against him.  Upon the release of Okah, MEND announced the beginning of a 60-day truce, which they stated stood on the condition that there would be a partial pull-out of government troops in the Delta.  Nigeria’s Defence Minister Godwin Abbey, however, rejects the demand, scoffing at the idea that the government would give in to militants’ demands.  Whether the 60 days truce will take place in its entirety, however, remains to be seen as reports from within JTF released to MEND revealed that a fully armed JTF is heading toward the coastal states of Delta and Ondo, threatening the security of their camps in the area.

The urgency of the crisis in the Niger Delta cannot be underestimated.  Africa Faith and Justice Network urges the U.S. government to use its leverage as one of the Nigerian government’s biggest oil purchasers to demand the Nigerian government and military to abide by international humanitarian laws to protect civilians and allow humanitarian agencies and aid to flow into the country.  U.S. leaders must play a mediating  role between the government and the militant groups.  President Obama should encorage President Umaru Yar’Adua to demilitarize and gradually withdraw the Joint Task Force as desired by MEND.  Similarly, the U.S. must refrain from using its own military command, AFRICOM, and withhold the approximately $4.5 million it plans to provide the Nigerian government in 2010 for military training, hardware sales and counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics education as a way of repressing the attacks.  Militarization has never and will never be the way to bring peace, stability or development as history has demonstrated.

What the people of the Niger Delta need most now is humanitarian aid, made difficult to receive by the swamps and isolated regions in the Niger Delta where communities are most affected.  The U.S. government must send a firm message to big foreign oil companies like Shell and Chevron. They must know that taking from the land and completely disregarding the environmental consequences, using the local government to exert violence and force to silence protestors, and standing idly by as innocent civilians are slaughtered by the military will no longer be tolerated.  The U.S. has immense potential to help the Niger Delta regain peace and stability – it must step up to the plate and accept the responsibility.