Nigeria’s most active armed group Saturday urged foreign workers to leave oil facilities in the volatile Niger Delta, warning of fresh unrest following a government crackdown on the militants.
“In order to avoid being caught in a cross-fire, we are asking all expatriate oil workers to vacate oil facilities and living quarters in the Niger Delta while we settle our score with an insincere federal government,” MEND said in a statement.
President Umaru Yar’Adua on Friday ordered the arrest of those behind an attack on Shell’s Bongo offshore oilfield and called for tighter security at all oil facilities in the restive oil-rich Delta.
“An attack on any militant position is tantamount to a declaration of oil war. The type of war they are expecting is far from what we plan to engage in,” the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said.
Describing the president’s order as “a joke”, MEND challenged the Nigerian authorities to attack any of its positions.
It also urged youths in the region to sabotage oil facilities in their communities “while those willing to be trained to fight are welcome in our training camps.”
It warned oil communities close to MEND camps against harbouring security operatives or spies.
Thursday’a attack of the Bongo oilfield prompted Shell to declare a force majeure — a legal clause allowing producers to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control — slashing output by 225,000 barrels per day.
The unrest in the Niger Delta has reduced Nigeria’s total oil production by a quarter in the past two years.