Militias warn of more violence

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Rival militias threatened Thursday to escalate a simmering ethnic conflict in Nigeria's oil delta, where 10 people were killed this week in an attack on a boat full of market vendors.\nNigerian military spokesman Said Ahmed said Itsekiri militants were suspected in the Tuesday evening attack on the boat traveling from the oil city of Warri to the village of Burutu, 30 miles to the southeast.\nThe passengers were mainly ethnic Ijaw and Urhobo market vendors. Ten people, including some children, were killed. Four others, including a 7-month-old baby, were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, Ahmed said.\nItsekiri National Youth Council spokesman Matthew Tsekure denied Itsekiris were responsible.\nHe warned, however, that Itsekiris were prepared to "defend ourselves" against rival Ijaws he accused of forcibly preventing displaced Itsekiris from returning to swamp villages they abandoned during a round of fighting last year.\nHe accused Ijaws of "massing to attack Itsekiris" in Warri.\nIjaw leader Dan Ekpebide said his followers were bracing for a new round of fighting.\n"We have been on the receiving end of repeated Itsekiri aggression. We have reached the limit of our endurance," Ekpebide said.\nMilitary officials say both sides have been steadily arming themselves with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades since a round of fighting last year left 200 dead in the Niger Delta, where the bulk of Nigeria's oil is produced.\nLast weekend, five Ijaw assailants carrying pump-action shotguns were killed by the navy while trying to storm an oil facility owned by Agip, a division of Italy's ENI SpA.\nFor several weeks in March 2003, the violence forced companies to shut down 40 percent of Nigeria's normal oil production of nearly 2 million barrels a day.