Nigeria’s most high-profile armed group said it destroyed three major pipelines early Tuesday in the oil-rich south of the country.
“Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked and destroyed three major pipelines in Bayelsa state,” the group’s spokesman said in an email message to the media.
The destruction of one of the pipelines, at Brass, resulted in an immediate power outage at a facility run by Italian oil major Agip, part of the ENI energy group, the MEND spokesman said.
There was no immediate confirmation from ENI or its subsidiary.
“All fighters involved in this attack have since returned to base without further incident,” MEND said.
“We will continue indefinitely with attacks on all pipelines, platforms and support vessels,” the statement said.
MEND warned late Monday it was about to resume attacks on oil pipelines in the south of the country.
“In pursuance of our pledge to cripple the Nigerian crude oil export industry, we will resume attacks on pipelines around the entire Niger Delta, in the coming days,” the group had said in an email statement, adding all such attacks would be followed by a statement claiming responsibility.
MEND, which industry and security sources describe as the best-equipped, best-organised and most media-savvy militant group in the country, has in the past tended to make good on such threats.
On May 1 the group seized six expatriate workers from an offshore oil facility and said it would free them unconditionally once the current administration has handed over power on May 29, provided no attempts were made to secure their release earlier.
Last Thursday it seized a further eight foreign hostages from another offshore vessel, only to release them hours later.
Since it rose to prominence in early 2006, MEND has carried out both kidnappings and a variety of other attacks such as car bombings, directed either at Nigerian government targets or at foreign oil companies and workers.
Rich in oil reserves, the Niger Delta area has been at the centre of a long confrontation between the government, militants who claim to be fighting for a larger share of the country’s oil resources for local people and a plethora of armed gangs out to make ransom money.