Nigeria: Government 'must punish sponsors of Delta unrest' - HRW

Chronic gang warfare will return to Nigeria's oil-producing south unless President Umaru Yar'Adua brings to justice local politicians who have fuelled the unrest, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. Gangs behind kidnappings, oil theft and other violent crime in the Niger Delta were going unpunished partly because of their connections to local politicians who first hired them to intimidate opponents or rig elections, it said in a report.