/ 8 December 2006

Nigerian militants threaten further oil-hub attacks

A Nigerian militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), has claimed responsibility for a raid on an oil-export terminal on Thursday in which four expatriate workers were kidnapped.

Mend, which staged a series of attacks on the oil industry in February that shut down a fifth of Nigeria’s production capacity, threatened to launch more attacks within days.

The threat comes six days before Nigeria is due to host a meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ ministers in the capital, Abuja. It also coincides with a turbulent time in Nigerian politics, with parties holding primaries ahead of next April’s elections.

”The following days will witness more attacks against oil-industry targets. We will not entertain talk concerning the release of the captured hostages. They will be exchanged for at least a part of our demands,” a Mend spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to media late on Thursday.

Mend is a faceless group that emerged early in 2006. Its sophisticated raids and hostage takings in January and February forced the closure of more than 500 000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude output from the world’s eighth biggest exporter.

Since then, Mend has made several dramatic threats to completely halt Nigerian oil exports and to attack state governors in the Niger Delta, but it has not carried these out.

In its statement on Thursday, the group demanded the release of two jailed leaders from the Niger Delta and compensation by companies to residents for oil spills. It has made these demands many times in the past.

Mend also called for the Nigerian government to give up control of oil assets in the delta to local communities and pay reparation to the people of the region for what it called ”50 years of enslavement and robbery”. This is a reference to oil extraction, which started 50 years ago in the delta.

Dawn raid

At dawn on Thursday, masked gunmen in seven speedboats attacked the Brass oil export terminal operated by Italy’s Agip in remote Bayelsa state in the delta. They kidnapped three Italians and one Lebanese.

Authorities said soldiers guarding the terminal repelled the militants and a local youth was killed by a stray bullet during the shootout.

Agip’s parent company Eni said operations at Brass, which exports about 200 000 bpd, were unaffected.

Mend gave a conflicting account of what happened. It said its fighters had destroyed the facility after the soldiers on guard fled without firing a single shot.

The attackers burnt down a military base and seized a substantial amount of guns and ammunition, Mend said.

The Niger Delta, which accounts for all of Nigeria’s oil output, has been plagued by kidnappings, attacks on oil facilities, massive theft, smuggling of crude and politically motivated violence for years.

Many residents of the vast, impoverished wetlands resent the oil industry, which has yielded huge revenues for corrupt governments and for foreign oil firms while bringing them few benefits.

As a result, militancy and crime flourish in the impenetrable region of mangrove-lined creeks and swamps. — Reuters