Tensions in the Niger Delta

Tension is building in the Niger Delta swampland ahead of the expiry at the end of the year of an amnesty aimed at stabilising Nigeria’s volatile southern region. The towns and cities are mostly calm, but residents say kidnappings and armed robberies are increasing in the mangrove swamps where most oil wells are located. President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim northerner, said in May he might "streamline" the amnesty, set up in 2009 by his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian like most Delta people. The deal aimed to pacify militants fighting for more of the oil revenues, and included paying $300 million a year to 30,000 youths to discourage them from blowing up pipelines or kidnapping oil workers.