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