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Troops are moving into Port Harcourt, the oil capital, to suppress the gangster rebels

Last week, a dozen customers at a restaurant at 10 Warri Street, Port Harcourt, were machine-gunned to death at their tables by a gang of youths, who then shot dead more bystanders in Sangana St. Nobody knows who the gang was or for whom it was working. Locals assume it was another settling of scores in the bloody battle for territory and money in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. No war has been declared in Rivers State but this year gang fighting and communal clashes have been as violent as under military dictatorship in the 1990s. Once known as the 'garden city', as federal troops move in Port Harcourt is now called the 'garrison city' by environmentalist and lawyer Oronto Douglas....

(This article contains approximately 1821 words)

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Keywords:

Oronto Douglas, Sylvester Araba, Warlords and state government, Emmanuel Ibodeng Njah, Peter Odili, Sara Igbe, Asari Dokubo, Usama bin Laden, Nelson Mandela, United States, Ateke Tom, Olusegun Obasanjo, Dutch, Basil Omiyi, Soviet, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Africa, Joshua Dariye, Crackdown on cultists, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Sani Abacha, Britons, Fabian Gberesu, persona non grata