LAGOS, Nigeria — Amnesty International said Thursday that a Nigerian military crackdown on militant fighters in the southern Delta has caused thousands of civilians to flee their homes and may have left hundreds of bystanders dead or wounded.
LAGOS, Nigeria — Amnesty International said Thursday that a Nigerian military crackdown on militant fighters in the southern Delta has caused thousands of civilians to flee their homes and may have left hundreds of bystanders dead or wounded. The London-based rights group said in a statement that the operation has also left some 20,000 people trapped in the far-flung areas being targeted in the vast and swampy region. Amnesty said no firm casualty figure is known. But it said it had received reports that hundreds of bystanders, including women and children, had died or been injured in the crossfire during one firefight between the military and the militants. "Hundreds of people are feared dead," it said of the overall military campaign. Government officials were not immediately available for comment. The military has said it was avoiding excessive force and was not targeting civilians. It launched the operation to destroy militant camps last week after gunmen clashed with troops — killing 12 soldiers, according to the militants. The fighting is the heaviest in that part of the restive Niger Delta since militants began increasing their activities in 2006. Authorities consider the southern Niger Delta as a military zone and travel on its network of creeks and rivers is strictly controlled. Journalists are prohibited from water travel unescorted. The military initially targeted a militant leader known as Government Tompolo, headquartered in Rivers State. It now appears ready to move eastward, toward two other states where militants are known to have heavily armed bases. Private security sources say fighters in those states are massing in several areas, girding for a fight. Activists of the ethnic Ijaw group, to which many militant fighters belong, accuse the government of heavy-handed practices that endanger civilians, such as firing helicopter-mounted cannons indiscriminately at supposed militant targets near villages. The activists compare the attacks in Rivers State to earlier massacres by the Nigerian military of villagers suspected of colluding with gunmen who killed soldiers. The militants behind a spate of oil-infrastructure sabotage, and kidnappings of foreign workers say they are trying to force the federal government, which controls the security forces, to send more oil-industry funds to the deeply impoverished Niger Delta. The government says most of the militants are common criminals who use a veneer of politics to mask their real activities, which is the lucrative theft and overseas sale of crude oil stolen from wells and pipelines. Militant and criminal activity in the Niger Delta has reduced oil output from Africa’s biggest producer by about one quarter. Current daily production is about 1.6 million barrels per day. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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