The main militant group in Nigeria’s restive southern region called off a unilateral cease-fire Friday after its fighters clashed with government forces, threatening to sink the hub of Africa’s biggest oil industry further into chaos.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta militants had declared a cessation of hostilities in September after the worst spate of violence in years to hit the Niger Delta, where militants fought rare open battles against the armed forces after years of nighttime sneak attacks and sabotage.
The United States is the top consumer of Nigeria’s crude oil, which is highly sought due to the ease which it can be refined into automobile gasoline and other products. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is the biggest international operator in Nigeria, followed closely by major U.S., French and Italian companies.
On Friday, the Movement made good on a threat to end the cease-fire if the military engaged its fighters again, saying government forces fired on a camp run by one of its members. The group said it would retaliate with attacks against Nigeria’s oil industry in an operation it called “Hurricane Obama.”
The militants promised a “sweeping assault” that would “change the face of oil and gas exports from Nigeria.”
Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the military task force charged with calming the region, confirmed an armed engagement. He said the military hadn’t targeted the camp, but that soldiers clashed with militants they encountered during a routine troop rotation.
Musa said one soldier had been wounded in the battle and taken to a hospital where he was in stable condition.
The militants declared a cessation of hostilities in late September after days of attacks on troops and the infrastructure that carries oil from wells to export terminals in the southern Niger Delta, the source of oil in Africa’s biggest producer. The militants said they stopped fighting in compliance with pleas from the region’s traditional leaders.
That was the worst outbreak of violence for years in the area, and gave a taste of the worst-case scenario for Nigeria: an all-out civil war on its southern flank, a vast region of mangrove swamps and creeks crisscrossed by a skein of extremely valuable — and lightly guarded — oil pipelines.
The violence slashed crude output in Nigeria, where the long-simmering unrest has kept the country’s daily crude production below 2 million barrels per day, or about 20 percent under Nigeria’s estimated capacity.
Some oil-industry officials fear output could fall much further and another return to widespread violence could prove catastrophic for Nigeria and its oil industry, which provides the federal government with about 90 percent of the foreign-currency earnings.
The militant group, known by its acronym MEND, emerged about three years ago, showing greater sophistication and ability in its attacks than the other armed factions that had existed in southern Nigeria for years. Lawlessness has spread in southern Nigeria as the militants grew stronger and armed young fighters, with kidnappings and armed robbery growing.
The group has shown that it’s able to attack virtually at will, even hitting multibillion dollar export terminals that float in the sea dozens of miles offshore.
The group is an umbrella association for various armed gangs in the Niger Delta, where criminality and militancy are closely intertwined. The militants say their campaign of sabotage against the oil industry is meant to force the federal government to release more funds to the southern crude-producing states.
The government says the militants are common criminals who are using political agitation to mask their illegal activities, primarily the siphoning and illegal overseas sale of oil. They say that means the militants aren’t likely to completely shut down the oil industry, since empty pipelines would cut off the source of the militants’ own earnings