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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Leaner Nigerian rebel group still threat to oil firms |
| 2010-02-04 |
| [Mail and Globe] by growing frustration over the government's lack of leadership, has the manpower, weaponry and local support to disrupt much of the Niger Delta's onshore oil operations. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) last week ended a three-month-old ceasefire and threatened to unleash "an all-out assault" on Africa's biggest oil and gas industry. Security sources said the industry was taking the threat "very seriously" and believed Mend could attack a vulnerable pipeline, flow station or other oil facility if the government did not quickly show willingness to negotiate. "Definitely something will happen. We had expected Mend to attack over the weekend," a security source said. "They know the places to attack where they can't get caught ... getting the credibility they need to push their political agenda," the source said. An oil pipeline was sabotaged on Sunday, forcing Royal Dutch Shell to shut three pumping stations in the Niger Delta. But a Mend spokesperson said its fighters were not "directly responsible" and security sources believed oil thieves were behind the incident. Attacks by Mend on Nigeria's oil sector in the past few years have prevented the Opec member from producing much above two-thirds of its capacity, costing it about $1-billion a month in lost revenues. Mend, a loose coalition of militant groups, was severely weakened by the departure of many key field commanders that accepted President Umaru Yar'Adua's amnesty offer last year. |
| Posted by:Fred |