BY NATE HAKEN AND PATRICIA TAFT

Delta is the second most populous state in the Niger Delta, with an estimated 4.1 million people. The state produces about 35% of Nigeria’s crude oil and a considerable amount of its natural gas. It is also rich in root and tuber crops, such as potatoes, yams, cassava, and coco yams. Delta has a legacy of ethnic and political tensions which flared in the late 1990s and again in 2003.

The 2009 Amnesty Program was instrumental in reducing violence and fatalities associate with militancy. In 2010, however, there was a spike in insurgency/counter-insurgency activity. In 2011, the governor dismissed all elected local government chairmen and replaced them with caretaker committee chairmen. After two years, LGA-level elections were held on October 25, 2014, with the PDP winning most seats and two LGAs experiencing unrest with results deemed inconclusive and needing to be rescheduled. PDP’s Ifeanyi Okowa won the 2015 gubernatorial election to replace incumbent PDP governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.

During the period of 2012-2014 reported incidents included gang violence, criminality, and vigilante/mob justice. There were a number of abductions, some targeting political figures, their family members, or oil workers. There were several reports of alleged abuses by public security forces, which sometimes provoked mob violence and protest. The data also suggests that in 2014 communal tensions and violence appeared to be increasing in the state as compared to previous years.

This Conflict Bulletin provides a brief snapshot of the trends and patterns of conflict risk factors at the State and LGA levels, drawing on the data available on the P4P Digital Platform for Multi-Stakeholder Engagement (www.p4p-nigerdelta.org). It represents a compilation of the data from sources listed below, not necessarily opinions of FFP or any other organization that collaborated on the production of this bulletin.

The summaries draw on data collected by FFP’s UNLocK, the Council on Foreign Relations’ NST, WANEP Nigeria, CSS/ETH Zurich, NEEWS/TMG, Nigeria Watch, and ACLED integrated on the P4P platform. They also draw on data and information from “Violence in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends,” by Patricia Taft and Nate Haken (Springer Press, April 2015).

* Hannah Blyth and Ania Skinner also contributed to this report.

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