Rights group Amnesty International said yesterday it had received reports suggesting hundreds of people, mainly civilians, may have been killed in a week-old Nigerian military offensive in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Nigeria last week launched its biggest military campaign for years in the western delta, bombarding militant camps near the town of Warri from the air and sea before sending in hundreds of troops to try to flush rebel fighters out of local communities.
Amnesty said the highest death toll was believed to have come when the joint military taskforce (JTF) in the delta used helicopter gunships to attack communities around a major militant camp close to Warri last Friday.
BYSTANDERS
“According to reports received by Amnesty International, hundreds of bystanders including women and children are believed to have been killed and injured by the JTF [military] and by the armed groups while shooting at the JTF,” it said in a statement.
The Nigerian army has repeatedly denied using excessive force and has said that no innocent civilians have been killed or displaced.‘NO CASUALTIES’
“We are applying minimum force,” military spokesman Colonel Rabe Abubakar said on Wednesday. “There are no casualties on the civilian side. Whoever is injured must have taken part in the fighting. It means they are criminals and if we get them, we will arrest them.”
Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia told reporters on Wednesday the government was doing all it could to minimize the loss of lives.
“The loss of lives, whether the militants or members of the armed forces, is sad. They are all Nigerians and so we will try and do what we can to prevent loss of lives,” he said.
The heavy military presence has made independent access to remote communities in the creeks around Warri virtually impossible since clashes broke out last week, making it difficult to assess the numbers of displaced or wounded.
Amnesty said thousands of people had been forced to flee their communities, echoing reports from local rights groups.
HIDING
“Many houses have been set on fire and destroyed by the military. People are still in hiding in the forest, with no access to medical care and food,” the group said.
Amnesty estimated that 20,000 people living in the area were trapped by the military offensive, unable to use their usual mode of transport — travel by boat through the creeks — for fear of being targeted by the military or militants.
The areas hit by the military, including the Okerenkoko and Oporoza communities, are largely made up of Ijaws, the largest ethnic group in the Niger Delta, prompting accusations from local leaders of a targeted campaign.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not