Posted by The Associated Press on
Nearly a week of gang violence in southern Nigeria intensified on Saturday, with more than a dozen people dead as security forces moved to curtail gunbattles that raged in largely deserted streets, witnesses said.
Nearly a week of gang violence in southern Nigeria intensified on Saturday, with more than a dozen people dead as security forces moved to curtail gunbattles that raged in largely deserted streets, witnesses said.
Sporadic fighting between members of rival criminal gangs broke out Monday in Port Harcourt, the main city in Nigeria's southern oil region, with at least half a dozen confirmed deaths through Friday.
On Saturday, the battles intensified as most residents stayed in their homes and security forces mounted roadblocks and patrols.
Witnesses said at least four people - two fighters, one police officer and one civilian - had died in the violence that sparked before dawn.
Fifteen bodies, including four wearing police uniforms, with fresh bullet wounds could be seen at one local morgue. Morgue staff said all the bodies were brought Saturday.
Fighters also torched a large fuel-pumping station in the city of about 1.5 million people.
Top police and military officials huddled in emergency meetings and were not available for comment.
Security has worsened dramatically in the region where Africa's biggest oil producer pumps its crude since militants launched a campaign in late 2005 to force the federal government to release more oil funds to their impoverished region.
Criminal gangs have moved to profit from the security vacuum, kidnapping expatriates and prominent Nigerians and running protection rackets in neighborhoods where they battle for control.
The exact spark for the week's violence wasn't known, but residents said they believed the fighters were drawn from two of the city's larger gangs who are rivals for money-spinning ventures in Port Harcourt.
Despite the region's natural bounty, most residents are deeply poor and tensions run high across the southern Niger Delta as its inhabitants compete for what resources do exist.
Militant attacks have cut nearly one quarter of Nigeria's normal 2.5-million-barrel daily oil production, helping push up crude prices around the globe.