Burutu

Burutu
LGA
Burutu
Coordinates: 5°21′N 5°31′E
Country	Nigeria
State	Delta State
Headquarters	Burutu Town
Time zone	UTC+1 (WAT)

British stamps used at the Royal Niger Company base at Burutu in the 1890s.

Burutu is a Local Government Area in Delta State, Nigeria. It lies on the coast of the Niger Delta on two sides of the Forcados River, a channel of the River Niger, 30 kilometres (20 miles) upstream from the Bight of Benin. It has served as a link between river transport and the sea when the Royal Niger Company established a base there in the late 19th century. People living in this region are mostly of the Ijaw ethnicity.

Burutu town

Economic activities

In the first half of the twentieth century the town expanded as a result of activities of the Niger Company and later UAC which acquired the trading interest of the Niger Company and its assets at Burutu. Prior to the beginning of the twentieth century, the main port of the Niger Company was at Akassa but when the water channel that opens to the sea became silted, the company moved operations Westward to Burutu close to Forcados. Burutu then served as a port terminal for Niger Company and UAC, discharging goods from ships for onward water transport to river ports in Northern Nigeria and French territories through rivers Niger and Benue.

The port of Burutu was owned by UAC but was later acquired by Nigeria Port Authority.

External links

• http://cas.umkc.edu/GeoSciences/LCAM/NIGER_DELTA/PAGES/N_Burutu_FocusGroup.htm