Niger Delta

===Recent armed conflict===
{{Main|Conflict in the Niger Delta}}

When long-held concerns about loss of control over resources to the oil companies were voiced by the [[Ijaw people]] in the [[Kaiama Declaration]] in 1998, the Nigerian government sent troops to occupy the Bayelsa and Delta states. Soldiers opened fire with rifles, machine guns, and tear gas, killing at least three protesters and arresting twenty-five more.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hrw.org/news/1998/12/31/state-emergency-declared-niger-delta | title=State of Emergency Declared in the Niger Delta | date=1998-12-30 | access-date=2018-01-19 | publisher=Human Rights Watch | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805220129/http://www.hrw.org/news/1998/12/31/state-emergency-declared-niger-delta | archive-date=2012-08-05 | url-status=live }}</ref> Since then, local indigenous activity against commercial oil refineries and pipelines in the region has increased in frequency and militancy. Recently{{When|date=March 2023}} foreign employees of [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]], the primary corporation operating in the region, were taken hostage by local people. Such activities have also resulted in greater governmental intervention in the area and the mobilization of the [[Nigerian Army]] and [[State Security Service (Nigeria)|State Security Service]] into the region, resulting in violence and human rights abuses. In April 2006, a bomb exploded near an oil refinery in the Niger Delta region, a warning against Chinese expansion in the region. The [[Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta]] (MEND) stated: "We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta. The Chinese government, by investing in stolen crude, places its citizens in our line of fire."<ref>Ian Taylor, [http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/741-China-s-environmental-footprint-in-Africa "China's environmental footprint in Africa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223061935/http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/741-China-s-environmental-footprint-in-Africa |date=2007-02-23 }}, ''China Dialogue'', 2 February 2007.</ref>

Government and private initiatives to develop the Niger Delta region have been introduced recently.{{when|date=March 2023}} These include the Niger Delta Development Commission, a government initiative, and the Development Initiative, a community development [[non-governmental organization]] based in [[Port Harcourt]]. Uz and Uz Transnational, a company with a strong commitment to the Niger Delta, has introduced ways of developing the poor in the Niger Delta, especially in Rivers State. In September 2008, MEND released a statement proclaiming that their militants had launched an "[[oil war]]" throughout the Niger Delta against both, pipelines and oil-production facilities, and the Nigerian soldiers that protect them. Both MEND and the Nigerian Government claim to have inflicted heavy casualties on one another.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7615498.stm "Nigeria militants warn of oil war"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915064938/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7615498.stm |date=2008-09-15 }}, BBC News, 14 September 2008.</ref> In August 2009, the Nigerian government granted amnesty to the militants; many militants subsequently surrendered their weapons in exchange for a presidential pardon, rehabilitation programme, and education.