Nigerian Military Attacks Oil Militants

All Headline News.com ^ | October 6th, 2006 | Nji Che

[M. Espinola]

Abuja, Nigeria (AHN) - The Nigerian military has launched several raids against oil militants, a few days after they killed 17 soldiers in the Niger Delta. Militants say the army swept through an oil producing community of the region with crushing strength.

A militant group dubbed the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said, "In light of this attack on a helpless community, we are at present considering reciprocal action against the military or oil installations in Rivers [State]."

A local army spokesman, Sagir Musa, has denied the report saying, "There is no truth in the story that the military attacked any community in the creeks." But independent media say the military used gun boats and helicopter gunships in the Delta's creeks.

Nigeria summoned its senior army officials on Thursday to meet in Abuja for crisis talks amid soaring oil violence around the region. The emergency talks were a direct result stemming from a militant group claiming it had killed 17 soldiers during two separate clashes.

MEND said in an email statement, "The fighting occurred next to Shell's oil installations." The group also revealed it seized two military gunboats.

This file picture from 2005 shows Shell's oil and gas terminal on Bonny Island in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta.

In a separate attack, MEND said it killed two soldiers and six sailors. The BBC quotes the group as saying in a statement, "After a brief shoot-out in which they were all killed, we boarded the houseboat and collected all the weapons aboard."

The army admitted it had a gunfire exchange with militants, but did not mention casualties. Clashes in the volatile oil-producing Niger Delta have impacted oil production in Nigeria. The country is losing about a quarter of its daily output to militant attacks.

Photos added

[M. Espinola]

Nigeria's oil heartland, the Niger Delta.

The Niger Delta: complex ethnic disputes go back hundreds of years>

Map of the ethno-linguistic groups of Nigeria.(Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection)

An Ijaw militant guards the Oporoza creeks in Gbaramatu kingdom, in Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta region, in this September 2, 2006 file photo.

[abovethefray]

I think the name of that country is racist.

[Triggerhippie]

I'm glad that I was able to help their Finance Minister via that email...

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I think the name of the continent is "permanently ass-backwards".