Ijaw Youth Council
Ijaw Youth Council (also indefinite as "Ijaw youths") is a civil rights organization in Nigeria, founded in 1998, which supports the interests of the Ijaw ethnic group of the Niger Delta.[1] At the point of the establishment of the IYC, leadership of the organization spread across the Nigerian states where the Ijaw people resides. Hence, in the South-South Nigeria (also known as Niger-Delta), Pronto Douglass led the IYC while Pere Camfo was the leader of the IYC in Ondo State[2] From 2001 to 2004, it was headed by Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, until Asari split from the movement to found the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force.[3]
Mr Peter Igbifa is the current President of the organization.
The Egbesu Boys, a group of Ijaw youths, which started as both cultural and religious groups but turned out as a group of young folks, which rise to tackle injustice resulting from oil exploitation in the Niger Delta have been identified as the militant arm of the IYC.
External links
- The Kaima Declaration by Ijaw Youths of the Niger Delta: "Being communique issued at the end of the All-Ijaw Youths Conference which held in the town of Kaima this 11th day of December 1998"
References
- Turnbull, Megan (2021-01-01). "Elite Competition, Social Movements, and Election Violence in Nigeria". International Security. 45 (3): 40–78. doi:10.1162/isec_a_00401. ISSN 0162-2889.
- Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Nigeria: The Ijaw Youth Council including leadership, headquarters, aims and whether membership includes non-Ijaws". Refworld. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
- Profile: Nigeria's oil militant BBC News, 4 Oct 2004.