Nigeria ordered hundreds of armedpolice into the troubled oil city of Warri today and themilitary also prepared to go in to quell five days of ethnicviolence.
The Nigerian Red Cross says at least eight people have diedin the clashes, but local observers put the death toll at up to50.
"The federal government is going to send a task force withtroops from the various military formations," said Mr Segun SheddyOzoeme, a spokesman for the Delta State government. "The MobilePolice are coming today - about 900 of them."
He said the task force would include the navy and landforces and possibly the air force. The Mobile Police are anelite unit of Nigeria's police force.
A spokeswoman for Nigerian President Mr Olusegun Obasanjo saidthe government "finds reports which indicate that some of thewarring parties are equipped with very sophisticated weapons ofwar very worrisome".
"The federal government continues to monitor the situationclosely and will take further action, if it becomes necessary todo so," the spokeswoman said in a statement.
"We don't know what will happen next, but for now everythingis calm. Military men are patrolling everywhere," said Mr DanielEkpebide, a spokesman for the militant group Federated NigerDelta Ijaw Communities.
The violence between the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups wasthe worst in the volatile Niger Delta since March, when an Ijawrevolt led to dozens of deaths and forced oil multinationals tohalt 40 per cent of OPEC member Nigeria's output.
The Ijaws say political power is unfairly skewed in favourof the Itsekeris. They also want a greater share of the region'soil wealth.