The military in Nigeria, a major oil exporter, is under trained and under equipped to enforce security in its lawless Niger Delta oil region, a senior U.S. defense official said.
Washington has offered Nigeria a number of joint training and equipment programmes to curb the violence in the delta, the country’s oil heartland, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense Theresa Whelan told a forum.
Nigeria, the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter, accounts for 8 percent of U.S. imports or about one million barrel per day (bpd).
Militant attacks and kidnappings of foreigners, mostly for ransom, have cut the OPEC member’s exports by a fifth for more than a year and prompted thousands of workers to flee the delta.
Because of a lack of training, Nigeria is unable to use four boats donated by the United States and 17 others bought by its navy to patrol the delta, a vast maze of mangrove-lined creeks and wetlands, Whelan said.
“The only problem is that the navy is not appropriately trained to use those boats and so for the most part … they sit idle in the delta,” Whelan said last week.
A Nigerian defence spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
The U.S. Defense Department has proposed a $16 million regional maritime programme for the Nigerian navy to raise awareness and check large-scale oil theft, which provides cash for militant groups to buy arms.
Whelan said there were “no quick-fix solutions” to violence in the delta, which produces all of Nigeria’s more than 2 millions bpd.
Washington is helping Nigeria develop a river unit to pursue oil thieves and militants; and offering to provide training and assistance in arms identification to help track illegal weapons coming into the delta, Whelan said.
Robberies and the kidnapping of foreigners was an almost weekly occurrence in January and February. The last of dozens of hostages taken by various groups in the last four months was rescued on Friday.