Truce holding between Nigerian troops, militia
 | Dokubo-Asari, seen in this June 25, 2004, photo, met with Nigeria's President Obasanjo Thursday. |
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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- A tentative truce between militia fighters and government troops in Nigeria's oil-rich south appeared to be holding on Thursday, with the two sides expected to have a second round of talks in the capital, a militia leader said.
Moujahid Dokubo-Asari who heads the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, said he would meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja to press his demands for increased autonomy and control over oil resources by impoverished inhabitants of the Niger Delta. The two sides agreed Wednesday to temporarily halt to the violence.
The militia group threatened on Tuesday to target foreign oil firms and their international workers starting Friday, Nigeria's 44th anniversary of independence from Britain, nudging crude oil prices to the historic peak of over $50 per barrel in global markets.
Nigerian military spokesman Col. Ganiyu Adewale told The Associated Press he had not received any orders to halt attacks on the militia and declined to say if there had been any violence.
But Dokubo-Asari said he had spoken to his commanders early Thursday, and they had no reports of fighting.
"Even this morning our boys in speed boats drove past a military base and exchanged a greeting with soldiers," Dokubo-Asari said Thursday. "Before they would've exchanged fire."
Dokubo-Asari's fighters are threatening to widen a battle for control of the Niger Delta and have warned foreign oil workers to leave the country.
The government says the talks are aimed at preventing a further deterioration of the security situation in the Nigeria Delta region, where the lion's share of Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels of oil are pumped daily.
Nigeria, a member of OPEC, is Africa's leading oil producer and exporter, the world's seventh-largest crude exporter and fifth-largest source of U.S. oil imports.
A military spokesman called Dokubo-Asari's initial threats "empty" and independent analysts questioned whether his militia could match one of Africa's best-equipped militaries. Major oil companies played down the warnings, saying the threats wouldn't seriously affect exports and no staff would be ordered to pull out.
Dokubo-Asari said Wednesday he could cancel his threatened offensive if talks succeeded -- but offered dire warnings if he was arrested.
"If we don't reach an agreement we'll go back to where we stopped and continue the fight," he said. "If they don't let me go, what about the other boys in the creeks? They will get cracking."
Dokubo-Asari is seen as a folk hero by many poor residents of the southern delta region who complain they have never shared in the country's vast oil wealth.
He claims to be fighting for self-determination in the region and greater control over oil resources for more than 8 million Ijaws, the dominant tribe in the southern delta region, which accounts for nearly all of Nigeria's daily oil production of 2.5 million barrels.
The government had routinely dismissed Dokubo-Asari's group as criminals, accusing them of illegally siphoning oil from pipelines.
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