Rebels from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said on Monday they had attacked a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline and killed 11 soldiers, but the army denied there had been any attack. The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement that it had sabotaged the Shell pipeline at Awoba flow station.
Gang warfare will return to Nigeria’s oil-producing south unless President Umaru Yar’Adua brings to justice politicians who have fuelled the unrest, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. Gangs behind kidnappings and oil theft in the Niger Delta were going unpunished partly because of their connections to politicians.
The risk of renewed violence in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta is increasing because militants are frustrated by a lack of concrete results from peace talks, a key negotiator said on Wednesday. Kingsley Kuku, a senior member of a government peace committee, said the government still had an opportunity to avert violence.