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Vigilantes kill 14 in Nigeria's oil-rich delta
Tue Jun 15, 2004 12:03 PM ET
By Uwakwe Abugu
ASABA, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 14 people were killed in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state on Saturday as vigilante mobs hunted down suspected armed robbers, soaked them in petrol and then set them alight, witnesses said on Tuesday.
The killings in the notoriously violent town of Ughelli brought the death toll in Delta state to at least 37 in the two weeks since police and military launched an offensive against criminal gangs.
Although the deaths took place at the weekend, news only filtered out on Tuesday due to the remoteness of the area.
Police said six people were killed -- four who were torched to death and two who were shot and wounded by the vigilantes and later died in police custody.
But a witness contacted by Reuters said he had counted 12 charred bodies scattered around the town on Saturday.
Criminal gangs, often backed by powerful political or ethnic figures have made the Delta, which produces all of Nigeria's oil wealth, one of the most violent regions in the OPEC member country.
At least 11,000 people have been in killed in Africa's most populous country and the world's seventh largest oil exporter since the country returned to civilian government in 1999 after 15 years of military rule.
Delta state police spokesman Victor Obasuyi said Saturday's killings occurred after vigilantes cornered a group of armed criminals who had robbed and raped residents over several weeks.
Residents said the vigilantes placed tyres over their victims' heads before setting them alight with petrol.
Some residents said policemen supporting the vigilantes shot the suspects, but Obasuyi denied this.
Human rights groups say Nigerian security forces have a history of human rights abuses that includes killing civilians with impunity.
Scores of people were killed by troops at the start of the month in neighbouring Rivers state, also in the Delta region, in a similar anti-crime operation, civil rights groups said.
Violence in the Delta peaked last year during elections in April and May, after ethnic Ijaws rose up against rival Itsekiris saying they had been denied political power and a fair share of oil wealth.
Scores of people were killed and oil multinationals were forced to shut down 40 percent of the country's two million barrel-per-day output as a result of the violence.
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