Nigeria rebels suspend ceasefire, threaten Britain

The most high-profile rebel group in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta said on Thursday it was suspending a two-week-old unilateral ceasefire and threatened British interests in the region.

In an email sent to Agence France-Presse, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it would resume armed operations from midnight on Saturday.

The group had declared a unilateral ceasefire on June 22 in order “to give peace and dialogue a chance”.

Mend said its decision to resume armed attacks was linked to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s promise at the Group of Eight summit in Japan to support the Nigerian government in ending violence in the delta region.

“Should Gordon Brown make good his threat to support this criminality for the sake of oil, United Kingdom citizens and interests in Nigeria will suffer the consequences,” Mend warned.

But the British High Commission in Nigeria said in a statement that it would continue to work with Nigeria despite the threat.

“British government policy on the Niger Delta remains unchanged. We remain committed to working with the Nigerian government to address the underlying causes of the instability ...

including improved governance and development as well as security,” said embassy official James McLaughlin.

“However, we take all threats to British interests seriously,” he added.

The unrest in the Niger Delta has reduced Nigeria’s total oil production by a quarter in the past two years.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 140-million people, was a colony of Britain until independence in 1960.—AFP