Nigeria: Troops quell Delta protests

Security forces have deployed in two cities in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta in the past two days to disperse former militants protesting over the non-payment of amnesty allowances.

Activists say the government is not keeping the promises it made during an amnesty period earlier this year and that the region, which is home to Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry, risks returning to violence.

More than half a dozen armoured vehicles and four truckloads of armed police deployed in the Amarata neighbourhood of Yenegoa, capital of Bayelsa state, today to disperse former militants demanding stipends, a Reuters report said.

The men said they were owed 300,000 naira ($2000) each promised in return for laying down their weapons earlier this year, but that the government had failed to pay up.

Upstream Online