Nigeria Rebel 'is alive and well'

A leading member of a Niger Delta oil rebel group has been confirmed as alive and well by members of his family.

The news comes over a week after Henry Okah's rebel group threatened "anarchy" in the Delta region unless his family and lawyers were given access to him.

Mr Okah, of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), was arrested in September.

The government last week revealed charges of treason against Mr Okah, who faces a death sentence.

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This article addresses the confirmation that a leading member of a Niger Delta oil rebel group is "alive and well." This comes after many feared that Okah had been killed, possibly by the government. Okah is being charged with treason and faces a death sentence. Okah has felt betrayed by the government because of agreements they had made previously. According to Okah's brother Charles, Mr. Okah did not seem to have been physically harmed while he was detained. The location of Okah and his friend, Edward Atatah, has remained unknown for the length of their detainment. Atatah is suffering from hallucinations and "acute hypertension" because of his detainment. The fact that this man has become mentally ill since he has been detained by the government alludes to the ill treatment that these men have been receiving.

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Pensions Paid to Nigerian Rebels

Former Biafran separatist leader Emeka Ojukwu was among those receiving the payments for retired soldiers at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja.

The government said the inclusion of 63 pardoned rebels in the payments showed the country had healed itself.

The eastern region tried to secede in 1967, sparking a bloody three-year war.

Some one million people died in the conflict, mostly from hunger and disease.

"Government has decided to fully integrate our compatriots who fought
on the other side of the unfortunate incidence of our civil war, it is the
culmination of the healing process that started the very moment the war
ended," said Defence Minister Mahmud Yayale Ahmed.

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Soldiers who fought for a separate state in 1967 are finally being given their promised pension. This fulfilled promise marks the beginning of a time of healing after years of conflict.