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Article: Guns and justice in the Niger Delta.(View from Lagos)
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- September 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Nigeria's Niger Delta has known a long history of struggle over resources. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, indigenous communities fought against attempts by British traders (backed by the imperial government) to seize control of the trade in palm oil and other produce. Communities like the Nembe, Opobo and Akassa were attacked by British gunboats and their chiefs deposed and exiled.
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In the mid-1960s, Isaac Adaka Boro declared a separate republic in the Niger Delta. Boro accused the post-independence governments of the period, controlled by Nigeria's major ethnic nationalities, of oppressing the minorities in the Delta. ...