Nigeria : Ethnic clashes over oil revenues

Reports from Nigeria say at least twenty people have been abducted and believed killed after ethnic clashes between communities in the oil rich southern Rivers State.

Local newspaper reports said the violence erupted involving three groups -- the Ke, the Krakrama and the Bille -- competing for the siting of lucrative oil pumping stations.

A regional police commander was quoted as saying that the situation in the region had been deteriorating over the past week.

He said waterways had been blocked by armed youths, some of them wearing camouflage uniforms and using what he described as sophisticated weapons.

Correspondents say disputes between communities over the siting of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region are quite common.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service