Nigeria’s main militant group said Saturday its fighters destroyed another pipeline in the country’s restive southern oil region.
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The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement that it hit the pipeline run by the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC late Friday. The group said it would continue attacking Nigeria’s oil infrastructure until the Africa’s oil giant could no longer send crude to overseas markets.
The group said it “will continue to nibble everyday at the oil infrastructure in Nigeria until the oil exports reaches zero.”
Shell officials were not immediately available for comment. If confirmed, it would extend the latest spate of violence to seven days.
The latest surge of violence in three years of chaos in Nigeria’s south began when the military staged a rare offensive Saturday against a militant camp with ground and air forces. Normally, militants and troops steer clear of each other.
Militants retaliated with raids on soldiers guarding oil installations and with sabotage on the pipelines that carry crude from wells to export terminals.
Militant groups say they are trying to pressure the national government into sharing more oil revenues with the poor people in the oil-rich Niger Delta. About 40 percent of Nigeria’s normal daily oil production has been cut off, severely curtailing exports.
MEND Statement:
From: Jomo Gbomo
Sent: Sat 20/09/2008 06:57
Subject: Buguma Pipeline Attack
About 2250 Hrs on Friday, September 19, 2008, a major pipeline located at Buguma Front in Asari Toru Local Government Area of Rivers state belonging to Shell Development Company was destroyed by Hurricane Barbarossa.
The military and the government of Nigeria whose unprovoked attack on our position prompted this oil war are no match for a guerrilla insurgency of this kind.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) will continue to nibble everyday at the oil infrastructure in Nigeria until the oil exports reaches zero.
At such a time, we expect the government to take seriously our demands of effecting true federalism, including fiscal federalism as practiced in all genuine federal republics around the world.
The impoverished and neglected inhabitants of oil producing communities consider our actions to these structures as good riddance to bad rubbish. Oil exploration has brought only pain to them by way of environmental damage (farmlands, fishing and wild life sanctuaries), harassment from the military and rape of under-aged girls by soldiers, extra-judicial killings of young men and development and wealth to other parts of the country at their detriment.
Jomo Gbomo