PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Military insists no mass killings in besieged Niger Delta community
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian military insisted Monday its troops did not engage in mass killing of innocent civilians as claimed by some activists and residents of the Ayakoromor community in oil-rich Delta state.
Soldiers of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) deployed to the restive Niger Delta oil region have been battling militants from
the camp of John Togo in the community since last week, leaving many civilians dead, injured or displaced and several houses
destroyed.
The figure of civlians who died in the battle cannot be confirmed, but some Ijaw groups did confirm that civilians were killed.
"At Ayakoromor, we confirmed from the community people who are currently on ground that nine persons are confirmed dead,
seven of them already hurriedly buried. Two in the morgue and many more still missing. We also observed that a good number of houses probably over 40 on the coastline were destroyed,'' the National President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Miabiye Kuromiema, told
journalists Monday.
On Monday, the local Nation newspaper quoted JTF spokesman, Lt.-Col. Timothy Antigha, as saying the task force was ''deeply concerned by the mischief and deliberate attempt made to discredit it, following its recent operation to clear criminal gangs which hitherto held communities and oil companies in the Niger Delta to ransom.
"The JTF is particularly distressed by false claim that it carried out genocide and rape in Ayakoromor community when no such incident took place.
The JTF is further worried by a fact that those behind this misinformation are people who should know better. For the avoidance of doubt, the JTF wishes to state categorically that it did not carry out any genocide in Ayakoromor, neither was Ayakoromor or any other community its target."
Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians who were displaced from the Ayakoromor community have fled to temporary camps in nearby Warri and Ogbe-Ijoh.
They are reported to be living in squalid conditions and facing starvation.
"While we are condemning this latest attack that it is one too many in the Niger Delta region, we appealed to well–meaning Nigerians, Ijaw sons and daughters to come to the aid of these our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers who face daunting challenges because of their displacement," the Movement for the Delta Ijaw Development Agenda (MFDIDA) said.
-0- PANA SEG 6Dec2010
Soldiers of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) deployed to the restive Niger Delta oil region have been battling militants from
the camp of John Togo in the community since last week, leaving many civilians dead, injured or displaced and several houses
destroyed.
The figure of civlians who died in the battle cannot be confirmed, but some Ijaw groups did confirm that civilians were killed.
"At Ayakoromor, we confirmed from the community people who are currently on ground that nine persons are confirmed dead,
seven of them already hurriedly buried. Two in the morgue and many more still missing. We also observed that a good number of houses probably over 40 on the coastline were destroyed,'' the National President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Miabiye Kuromiema, told
journalists Monday.
On Monday, the local Nation newspaper quoted JTF spokesman, Lt.-Col. Timothy Antigha, as saying the task force was ''deeply concerned by the mischief and deliberate attempt made to discredit it, following its recent operation to clear criminal gangs which hitherto held communities and oil companies in the Niger Delta to ransom.
"The JTF is particularly distressed by false claim that it carried out genocide and rape in Ayakoromor community when no such incident took place.
The JTF is further worried by a fact that those behind this misinformation are people who should know better. For the avoidance of doubt, the JTF wishes to state categorically that it did not carry out any genocide in Ayakoromor, neither was Ayakoromor or any other community its target."
Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians who were displaced from the Ayakoromor community have fled to temporary camps in nearby Warri and Ogbe-Ijoh.
They are reported to be living in squalid conditions and facing starvation.
"While we are condemning this latest attack that it is one too many in the Niger Delta region, we appealed to well–meaning Nigerians, Ijaw sons and daughters to come to the aid of these our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers who face daunting challenges because of their displacement," the Movement for the Delta Ijaw Development Agenda (MFDIDA) said.
-0- PANA SEG 6Dec2010
