Nigeria’s most high-profile armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), said late on Monday it will shortly resume attacks on oil pipelines in the south of the country.
”In pursuance of our pledge to cripple the Nigerian crude oil export industry, we will resume with attacks on pipelines around the entire Niger Delta, in the coming days,” Mend said in a statement emailed to the media.
”All attacks will be followed by a statement claiming responsibility as has been our practice,” the group continued.
Mend, which industry and security sources describe as the best-equipped, best-organised and most media-savvy militant group in the country, has in the past tended to make good on such threats.
Last Tuesday the group seized six expatriate workers from an offshore oil facility and said it would free them unconditionally once the current administration has handed over power on May 29, provided no attempts were made to secure their release earlier.
Last Thursday it seized a further eight foreign hostages from another offshore vessel, only to release them hours later.
Since it rose to prominence in early 2006, Mend has carried out both kidnappings and a variety of other attacks such as car bombings, directed either at Nigerian government targets or at foreign oil companies and workers.
Rich in oil reserves, the Niger Delta area has been at the centre of a long confrontation between the government, militants who claim to be fighting for a larger share of the country’s oil resources for local people and a plethora of armed gangs out to make ransom money. ‒ Sapa-AFP