AFRICOM in action? Thousands flee Nigeria Delta carnage

[Ghost Dog]

Thousands flee Nigeria Delta carnage

By Andrew Walker
BBC News, Warri

Thousands of refugees from a remote area of a Nigerian oil-producing state have fled fighting between the military and oil rebels; sleeping in the swamps and too afraid to go home.

When military helicopters buzzed over the small town of Oporoza, in Nigeria's Niger Delta, it was just two days after 19-year-old Happiness Michael had given birth.

The helicopter gunships hovered low over a crowded street, where people had gathered to celebrate an annual festival, and opened fire with machine guns and rockets, according to several accounts.

"I saw bombs and fire and shooting, we fled," the teenager told the BBC.

Terrified of military

The assault last Friday was the beginning of a six-day campaign by the Nigerian military's Joint Task Force (JTF), which is in charge of security in the Niger Delta, fighting oil militants.

/... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8062315.stm

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These appear to be new tactics on the part of this special force of the Nigerian military...

Nigeria, US ties may chart AFRICOM path

Amid opposition to AFRICOM, Nigeria is pushing a different vision of military partnership that could make US troops less visible but still effective, Dulue Mbachu writes for ISN Security Watch.

By Dulue Mbachu in Lagos for ISN Security Watch (02/05/08)

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) envisages US military cooperation with African governments where possible and direct interventions in the continent as necessary; but the idea of US troops on African soil rankles observers across the Africa, rendering local leaders reluctant to offer their countries as bases.

...

A different vision of military partnership with Washington being espoused by Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua appears set to get AFRICOM going and possibly chart its future. During a visit to the White House in December last year, Yar'Adua argued that what Africa needed was support for standby forces working under the various regional economic groupings in the continent to deal with perceived security threats without direct US military involvement.

"We shall partner AFRICOM to assist not only Nigeria but also the African continent to actualize its peace and security initiatives," Yar'Adua told reporters during his White House visit. Amid media reports in Nigeria that his statement meant acceptance of AFRICOM, Yar'Adua insisted upon his return that he had not changed his government's earlier position against the stationing of US troops in Africa.

"I did not accept AFRICOM in my discussions with Bush," he said in a Nigerian radio interview. "I asked for assistance and told Bush that we have our plans to establish bases for African countries. We asked for {weapons training} and training to establish our bases to be managed by our people," Yar'Adua added, mentioning specifically plans by Gulf of Guinea countries to set up a joint security force.

A partnership sealed by oil

For the Nigerian leader there are indeed pressing reasons to seek US military partnership in the country's Atlantic waters.

The southern Niger Delta coastal areas, which account for nearly all of Nigeria's oil output, juts into the Gulf of Guinea. Militants bred on decades of discontent on the part of impoverished locals who feel cheated out of the oil wealth pumped from their land, have taken to armed insurgency, hitting oil exports hard. Half of the exports of Africa's leading producer go to the US, whose imports from the Gulf of Guinea are expected to jump from the current 15 percent to 25 percent of all oil imports by 2015.

/... http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2008/05/nigeria-us-ties-may-chart-africom-path.html

... but I guess there are no real investigative reporters out there on the ground; just the BBC to tell us about it.