Two months after a new round of devastating violence broke out in the Niger Delta, the Nigerian government has offered amnesty if all militants turn over all their weapons and renounce violence by October, and the militants have offered a 60-day cease fire after a key militant leader – Henry Okah – was released from prison earlier this month.  These actions should be good signs that the region is taking its first tenuous step toward peace, however most experts believe that the region is not close to any such reality.  Thousands of people are still displaced, the military is still occupying the region and will not let displaced people return home and the militants are threatening to end the cease fire any minute.

Now, more than ever before, third party negotiations involving all stakeholders are needed to secure any possibility of a lasting peace and a roadmap to develop the Delta that will benefit the millions who are living in absolute poverty and environmental destruction. Third party negotiations are essential because there is a credibility gap between what the Nigerian government has claimed it would do in the past to support earnest development in the Niger Delta and what has actually occurred: building up a military occupation in the region and responding to militant violence, not community voices. The oil companies also need to step up and work with local community groups and the government to provide for the millions living in poverty in the Delta.

JINN supports the demands of local community groups in the Delta calling for:

• A complete military withdrawal from the Delta and a permanent ceasefire
• Independently monitored third party diplomatic talks with all stakeholders in the Delta

• Free and unfettered access to all parts of the Delta by journalists, humanitarian groups and human rights organizations

• Implement the already existing plan to develop the Delta in earnest

• Rebuild communities destroyed by the current crisis

Read more about the crisis and possible recommendations for the way forward:

Foreign Policy In Focus: Postcard from…The Niger Delta by Andrew Blum

Foreign Policy Magazine: A Violent Window of Opportunity: Why troubled times are the perfect chance to calm the Niger Delta by Mark Schneider and Nnamdi Obasi