MEND plans major military offensive

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delt(MEND)said that it is preparing a major attack on the Nigerian Army and on international oil installations in the southern Niger delta region.

“The following days will be bleak for the Nigerian oil industry.

We will commence our long-delayed attacks on (it),” MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo told the Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa on Wednesday.

“We will attack the most heavily fortified installations, so the Nigerian government cannot claim to have been caught unawares …

We are in the process of moving 1,000 of our battle-hardened fighters into positions around the Niger Delta,” Gbomo said.

The separatists are still holding hostage Cody Oswalt and Russel Spell, both Americans, and John Hudsmith, a Briton.

“The hostages have been separated for strategic reasons and all considerations to their comfort and well-being disregarded henceforth.

“As previously stated, the hostages will not be executed without good reason. Expatriates around the Niger Delta are advised again to leave as we do not wish to shed innocent blood,” Gbomo told dpa.

He said that any optimism that the three hostages still being held by the militants would be released on Wednesday was unfounded as the Nigerian government had not made any credible offers to end the stand-off.

The three were taken hostage on February 18 alongside six of their colleagues while laying pipes for oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. The other six were released on March 1.

Gbomo said that oil had been of no benefit to the indigenous people of the delta.

The latest confrontation between the militants and the Nigerian government reduced Nigeria’s daily crude oil production by 600,000 barrels a day, from 2.6 million barrels to 2 million barrels a day.

Meanwhile, ethnic Ijaw youth leaders have called on the Nigerian government to declare a cessation of hostilities against the Ijaw.

In a communique issued at the end of a two-day meeting Tuesday, the Ijaw Youth leaders also called for the release of the three hostages still being held.

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