Nigeria: Oil rebels warn of more violence in the delta

Nigeria’s main militant group gave warning yesterday of further clashes with the military in the oil-producing Niger Delta and said it had moved two British hostages “out of harm’s way” in anticipation of unrest.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it would “join the fray” between the military joint task force and youths who it said were protesting against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell in the southern state of Bayelsa.
Gunmen attacked navy personnel guarding a Shell facility at Nembe in Bayelsa on Monday, killing one sailor and stealing four speedboats belonging to the company, in what the military said was revenge for the sinking of several militant vessels.
The militants put the death toll higher, saying three sailors were killed, four abducted and two navy gunboats seized. It said it could not guarantee the safety of Shell staff and equipment. “We wish to warn that should any MEND camps be attacked, the entire Niger Delta region will become a theatre of another civil war,” the group said.
“The same position will be taken if the military carries out any punitive invasion on the impoverished communities that protested against Shell.”
The militants, who have made such threats in the past, is the latest in a line of militant groups to press demands for what it says is a fairer share of the wealth in the delta home to Africa’s biggest oil industry.
Many villages remain mired in poverty after five decades of oil extraction and local communities blame foreign oil firms, although the corruption of local politicians means oil revenues and royalties paid by those companies have been squandered.
Attacks on industry facilities by militants or saboteurs seeking to steal crude oil are frequent in the delta’s creeks, but confrontation with the military has been relatively rare recently.
Insecurity in the area has cut Nigeria’s oil output, forced foreign oil giants to remove all but essential expatriate staff and eaten into the Opec member’s foreign earnings, exacerbating the impact of the global slowdown.
Finance Minister Mansur Muhtar said last month oil production so far this year had been averaging around 1.6m barrels a day, almost half the country’s installed capacity of 3m barrels a day, partly due to the insecurity.
The militants have been holding two British oil workers hostage for
seven months and has said it will not release them until one of its
leaders, Henry Okah, is freed from jail. - Reuters