Title: Niger Delta - Wikipedia
Headings: Niger Delta
Niger Delta
Contents
Geography
Demographics
History
Colonial period
Post-colonial period
Nigerian Civil War
Non-violent resistance
Recent armed conflict
Sub-regions
Western Niger Delta
Central Niger Delta
Eastern Niger Delta
Nigerian oil
Oil revenue derivation
Media
Social Media
Environmental issues
See also
References
Sources
External links

Content: Recent armed conflict
Main article: Conflict in the Niger Delta
Unfortunately, the struggle got out of control, and the present phase has become militant. 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. Since then, local indigenous activity against commercial oil refineries and pipelines in the region have increased in frequency and militancy. Recently foreign employees of Shell, the primary corporation operating in the region, were taken hostage by outraged 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 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. MEND stated: " We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta.