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Nine dead in attack in Nigeria; Italian oil company offices robbed
 Camouflage-clad attackers raided an Italian oil company's riverside offices in Nigeria on Tuesday, sparking a gunfight that left nine people dead before assailants fled by speedboat into the oil-rich delta's waterways.
| This doesn't sound like a bunch of the locals picked up their hunting rifles and set out to raise some hell. I may have mentioned this a time or two before, but natty uniforms, guns, ammunition, transportation, logistics, and speedboats aren't free. If there's an organized, coordinated force attacking oil companies or anyone else, for that matter somebody's financing it, which should leave a money trail to follow. |
The attack on Agip's offices in the southern oil center of Port Harcourt is the latest in a recent rash of violence across the restive Niger Delta that has killed nearly two dozen people, cut petroleum production in Africa's largest oil exporter and helped push up prices of crude worldwide.
| Quite by coincidence when oil prices are getting hammered by Iran and the depredations on Iraq's oil production, while Hugo's making faces and threatening to cut his own sales to the U.S... |
The attackers, wearing army-style uniforms, cruised up behind Agip's riverbank facility in their boat, forced their way into the compound and stole about $28,000 (euro23,000) in cash before the shoot-out with security forces, said Samuel Adetuyi, the head of the police in the city.
| I'm not impressed. $28k's a fair piece of cash, but how long will it support operations by, say, a 15-man platoon? How long will it support them in garrison, even in Africa? |
Seven uniformed police, a plainclothed security official and one company employee died in the gunfight that ended when the attackers fled in their speedboat back into the region's labyrinth of creeks and swamps, he said.
| "Fled" in this case means they beat it. Their mission was prob'ly accomplished: steal some dough, bump a few guys off, and further destabilize oil production. |
Agip's parent company Eni SpA said in Italy that it "has temporarily evacuated staff and contractors from the area of the base affected by the incident and the situation is currently under control." The company said there were others injured, but it was unclear how many. Italy said none of its citizens were among the dead.
| Like I said, mission accomplished. |
A rash of attacks and kidnappings in recent weeks by militia groups demanding the release from prison of local leaders have cut Nigeria's daily exports of 2.5 million by nearly 10 percent and claimed at least 23 lives. But Adetuyi said there was no immediate evidence that Tuesday's attack on Agip was linked to that. "I can't confirm whether there is any link with militiamen," Adetuyi said.
| A bunch of boyos in camo duds and no doubt fearsome-looking berets show up in a speed boat waving guns and bumping people off, but he's not confirming they're linked to militiamen. My knees creak when I get up, my hair's mostly fallen out, and when I shave in the morning my Grandaddy looks out at me from the mirror, but I can't confirm I'm getting old. |
Despite the massive amounts of crude pumped from southern Nigeria, much of the region remains in abject poverty and activist groups have been agitating for President Olusegun Obasanjo's federal government to provide them with a greater share of state oil revenues. At least 14 other people have been killed in oil-platform attacks and other violence since earlier this year.
Posted by: Fred 2006-01-25 |
