Nigeria calls in the army
2004-06-05 15:37
Lagos - Nigerian police and soldiers have raided hideouts of armed militants in villages outside the country's main oil city, Port Harcourt, officials said on Saturday, but denied reports of dozens of casualties.
Government and police officials said they had not heard that anyone died in Friday's raid against militias in the Niger Delta communities of Buguma and Ogbakiri, despite rights activists expressing concern over civilian deaths.
"It's true that the military has gone into Buguma to restore peace there. The government is pursuing drastically the policy of removing arms in the hands of warring persons," said Rivers State spokesman Emmanuel Okah.
Okah had earlier said that he had heard reports of casualties, but later called back to say that having checked with police commanders he had been assured that no-one had been killed in what he said was a "routine operation".
"The raids have been successful," he said, adding that some arrests and arms seizures had been made.
Rivers police spokeseperson Ireju Barasua said: "There was an incident. There has been a joint security operation involving the police, navy, air force and army for some time now because of the violent activities of some cult members."
National police and military officials refused to comment.
The Buguma district been in the grip of fighting between two rival local factions from the Ijaw ethnic community for more than a year. Scores of people have been killed in recent clashes.
Dokubo Asari, the leader of one of the factions, said that a large combined force had attacked the district in the early hours of Friday morning, triggering clashes with his armed supporters.
He said that helicopter gunships and navy patrol boats had strafed the communities, and that scores of civilians had been killed.
Women and children
"I personally saw and helped carry 11 corpses. I saw many wounded and heard that some of them died later," he said. "They killed so many women and children and old men and women who could not run away."
Asari said that the military had set fire to civilian homes and that his militia had responded, sinking a navy patrol. "We sank one of their gunboats and I don't know the number of their people who were killed," he said.
Asari's claims could not immediately be independently verified, but a leading Niger Delta human rights activist expressed concern at what he said were credible reports of civilian casualties in the fighting.
"Reports from the community say that several persons have been killed, and houses burned down," said Oronto Douglas, a well-known lawyer, activist and a leader of the pressure group Environmental Rights Action.
"Our fear is that a military not gifted in human rights could act beyond their brief and create serious violations of fundamental freedoms. Government should use civilised stratagems to arrest those who fall short of the law."
Nigerian press and radio reports gave death tolls from the fighting ranging from 16 to 30, but no official source could confirm any figure.