WARRI CRISIS UPDATE 14AUG03

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001387

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/14/2013
TAGS: EPET PGOV ASEC PINS NI
SUBJECT: WARRI CRISIS UPDATE 14AUG03


REF: ABUJA 1378 AND PREVIOUS


1.(U) Classified by Charge' d'Affaires a.i. Rick Roberts for
reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).


2.(SBU) Ijaw militants the evening of August 13 attacked an
Itsekiri village near Gbomwei -- the Ijaw village attacked
August 12 -- Shell's Warri-based security manager Tony Obuaya
told Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) August 14. Ijaw
national leader Chief Edwin K. Clark gave CRO a slightly
different report of what seems to have been the same incident
-- saying that Ijaw militants confronted Itsekiris returning
to re-attack Gbomwei in the evening of August 13, prompting
an extensive gun battle in the creek opposite Warri town.
Whichever is true, this incident may be what was reported in
Nigeria's "The Guardian" August 14, entitled "Mystery gunfire
causes panic in Warri" (this is available on website
www.ngrguardiannews.com). The "heavy gun-shots" reported in
the article were fired in the evening in the Warri port area,
which faces the village of Gbomwei.


3.(C) According to Shell's Obuaya, additional police and
military have deployed to Warri town, and he expects these
new units to move out into the creeks "very soon."
ROBERTS