Nigeria strike puts forests under threat

First Edition

LAGOS (AFP) - A forestry officer in northern Nigeria's Kebbi state, said yesterday the oil workers' strike had made a mockery of a campaign to stop desertification backed by the World Bank and the European Union. The officer said people were cutting down trees by the hundreds for fuel. The tropical woods of Ibadan state in the south-west have also suffered, according to reports.

Yesterday Nigeria's military regime enacted two decrees to replace the leadership of three unions behind the strike. This week the junta threatened to sack strikers and promised to give tanker drivers a military escort to protect them if they resumed fuel deliveries to Lagos.