The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said plans are underway to launch series of attacks on oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta region soon.
It also said that it was holding several expatraites hostage including three French nationals and a Thai national seized off Nigeria’s coast in recent weeks, Jomo Gbomo, a spokesman for the group, said in an e-mailed statement to the media.
“In the coming days, our fighters would launch series of attacks on oil installations across the Niger Delta,” the group said in the statement.
MEND is one of the largest militant groups in the Niger Delta region. The organisation claims to expose the exploitation and oppression of the people of the Niger Delta and the devastation of the natural environment by public-private partnership between the Federal Government and corporations involved in the extraction of oil in the region.
The organisation has been described as one that portrays itself as a political organisation that wants a greater share of Nigeria’s oil revenues to go to the impoverished region that sits atop the oil. In fact, it is more of an umbrella organisation for several armed groups, which it sometimes pays.