Katharine Houreld
Guest Author
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/ 17 September 2004

Nigeria’s generation of warriors

In flip-flops and shorts, the five youths looked like any other fishermen. Only after pulling away from the jetty did they retrieve the machine gun and Kalashnikovs from under the seats. Suitably armed, we raced off through channels so narrow that mangrove trees scraped both sides of the speedboat, heading for one of the militia camps hidden in the swamps of the Niger Delta.

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/ 9 September 2004

Scars of recognition

The trial of the 14 foreigners accused of attempting to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea last March has thrust the notoriously repressive regime on to the international stage. However, while the spotlight shines into the rat-infested cell the alleged mercenaries share in the notorious Black Beach prison, the political prisoners arrested two years ago remain mouldering in the shadows.