This paper explores the complex roots and dimensions of the Niger Delta conflict which has escalated from ethnic minority protests against the federal Nigerian State-Oil Multinationals' alliance in the 1990's to the current insurgency that has attracted worldwide attention. It also raises some conceptual issues drawn from 'snapshots' taken from various perspectives in grappling with the complex roots of the oilrelated conflict in the paradoxically oil-rich but impoverished region as an important step in a nuanced reading of the local, national and international ramifications of the conflict and its implications for Nigeria's development. The conflict is then located both in the struggle of ethnic minority groups for local autonomy and the control of their natural resources (including oil), and the contradictions spawned by the transnational production of oil in the region. The transition from resistance -as-protest -to insurgency, as represented by attacks on state and oil company targets by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is also critically analyzed. RésuméCet article explore les racines et les dimensions complexes du conflit dans le delta du Niger qui a évolué à partir des protestations de la minorité ethnique contre l'alliance entre l'État fédéral nigérian et des multinationales pétrolières dans les années 1990, pour aboutir à l'actuelle insurrection qui a attiré l'attention du monde entier. Il soulève également quelques questions conceptuelles émanant de diverses points de vue traitant des racines complexes du conflit pétrolier dans cette région riche en pétrole, mais paradoxalement appauvrie, comme une étape importante d'une lecture nuancée des ramifications locales, nationales

This article interrogates the framing of the resource curse as a central causal mechanism in the resource abundance–conflict nexus in Africa. It is argued that explaining such conflicts on the basis of the ways natural resources either act as an incentive/motive for rebel groups, or erode and weaken states, does not adequately capture the complex histories, dimensions and transnational linkages to civil conflict in Africa. The article lays bare the attempts by a hegemonic discourse to obfuscate the reality of the fundamental and transnational underpinnings of the resource–conflict nexus. It is argued that the resource curse perspective cannot fully explain conflict in African oil states, and rather, a case is made for an alternative model based on radical political economy which lays bare the class relations, contradictions and conflicts rooted in the subordination of the continent and its resources to transnational processes and elites embedded in globalised capitalist relations.

This article explores the Post-Amnesty Programme (PAP), launched in 2009 following the decision of some insurgent militia leaders in the Niger Delta to ‘drop their weapons in exchange for peace’ with Nigeria's federal government. It addresses the following questions: how has the PAP been shaped by the politics of the Nigerian state, and elite and transnational oil interests? Is the trade-off between peace and justice sustainable when such peace fails to address the roots of the grievances? The article argues that the PAP is an unsustainable state-imposed peacebuilding project to preserve the conditions for oil extraction by local, national and global actors.

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