UK sees limited role in Niger Delta lawlessness

Britain said on Thursday it would not send soldiers or equipment to Nigeria to help tackle lawlessness in the restive Niger Delta, but would provide military experts to help in training.

The statement from United Kingdom Minister for Africa Mark Malloch-Brown comes two days after gunmen in the delta hijacked an oil supply vessel with two Britons and 11 others on board.

The two countries agreed in July to set up a security training force to assist Nigeria in its fight against militants.

“This is a training role in the background. It is not providing equipment and certainly not providing British soldiers,” Malloch-Brown said.

Militants, who say they are fighting for development and greater control of the delta’s oil profits, launched a campaign of violence against Nigeria’s oil sector in early 2006 that has shut a fifth of its production.

Nigeria President Umaru Yar’Adua took office 16 months ago promising to bring stability to the delta, but has seen little success and has looked overseas for help.

Criminal gangs have taken advantage of the breakdown in law and order, and the instability has become as much about control of lucrative trade in stolen oil and abductions for ransom as about political struggle.

The two countries have agreed to try to identify people behind the trade in stolen “blood oil”, which is used to buy weapons.

Yar’Adua on Thursday urged the international community to explore the possibility of chemically marking oil stolen from conflict areas.—Reuters