Nigeria’s main militant group said on Sunday it had begun a unilateral ceasefire after a week of clashes with the military and attacks on oil installations which cut output in Africa’s top producer.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) launched strikes against pipelines, flow stations and other oil and gas facilities last Sunday in response to what it said were ground and air strikes by the military against one of its bases.
”Effective midnight GMT September 21, exactly one week after we launched our reprisal, Mend will begin a unilateral ceasefire till further notice,” the group said in an emailed statement.
It said it had taken the decision after a plea by elders but warned it would restart its campaign if it came under attack from the security forces. It also warned that other groups aligned with it may not respect the ceasefire.
”We hope that the military has learnt a bitter lesson. The next unprovoked attack will start another oil war that will be so ferocious that it will dim the pleas of the elders,” it said.
Mend has carried out at least six attacks in as many days over the past week, its most intense campaign for years against the oil industry in Nigeria, the world’s eighth biggest exporter.
Royal Dutch Shell, the company hardest hit by the violence, declared a force majeure on shipments of Bonny Light, a type of crude oil, effective from Friday. Force majeure is a contractual clause invoked by suppliers when they cannot meet their obligations due to events beyond their control.
Such intensity of attacks across the eastern Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks, has made assessing the impact difficult as engineers scramble to investigate exactly how much production has been hit in each location.
Shell — which operates onshore in Nigeria in a joint venture with state run oil firm NNPC — has given no figures.
Nigerian government officials have said production has fallen by 150 000 barrels per day (bpd) over the past week, and estimate the country’s current output at 1,95-million bpd.
The militants say they want greater development and a better living environment after decades of neglect in the delta, where impoverished villagers live among polluted land and water.
But the unrest is fuelled by a lucrative trade in stolen oil worth millions of dollars a day.
Security experts say the region will never be stable unless an alternative source of income can be found for the gunmen, businessmen, politicians and international shippers all taking their slice of the illegal profits. – Reuters