Nigerian militants assault oil industry

Nigeria is facing a serious escalation in the conflict that has hit the oil-rich but poverty-stricken Niger Delta region, as rebels threatened on Feb. 19 to blow up offshore tankers, a day after seizing nine foreign hostages. The warning from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) came after a series of military-style raids that disabled oil and gas pipelines and sabotaged a key oil loading platform, halting millions of dollars of production. Shoreline gunboat attacks have been a key feature of the upsurge in rebel violence, but so far raids have focused on damaging pipelines or platforms or kidnapping staff, rather than firing rockets at the giant oil tankers off shore. The fighting in Africa's largest oil exporter has regularly sent prices climbing in global oil markets. Efie Alari, a self-declared commander of the MEND, said his group was poised to attack offshore foreign crude oil tankers. "We'll use our rockets on the ships to stop them from taking our oil," Alari said. Making good on their threat, the militants blew up an oil pipeline and a military houseboat on Feb. 20. "Shell Nigeria can confirm that Koremo manifold on the Trans-Forcados pipeline was destroyed in fresh attacks early this morning. Also an abandoned houseboat in the area was sunk," Shell said in a statement. The group kidnapped nine foreign oil workers on Feb. 18, forcing a 21 percent cutback in shipments from the world's eighth largest oil exporter. It said it could also destroy shipping. "That can easily be achieved by setting the engine room and accommodation space on fire. As long as the integrity of the storage tanks has been compromised, whatever stored products will serve as fuel to ensure a complete destruction," the group said. Militants in the Delta enjoy widespread support, as 20 million people remain rooted in poverty despite the enormous wealth generated in the oil-rich area, putting Nigeria among the leading OPEC nations. Violence has flared since the arrest in September of Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, a militant leader who is awaiting trial on treason charges. In military-style predawn raids, militants in speedboats snatched a Briton, three from the US, two Egyptians, two Thais and one Filipino from a barge operated by US services company Willbros during a string of attacks which crippled Shell's 380,000-barrel-a-day Forcados loading platform and two pipelines. MEND said their attacks were in response to military air raids in Delta State on Feb. 15 and 17 and would be followed by another wave of violence "on a grander scale." The militants said they wanted more local control over the Niger Delta's vast oil wealth and the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders, including Dokubo-Asari. They accused Shell of allowing the military to use an airstrip operated by the company to initiate its attacks, and threatened to attack any aircraft, including civilian planes, using it. The military said their aerial bombardment this week had been aimed at gangs stealing crude oil from pipelines. But community leaders said the targets were villages suspected of harboring militants, who had staged a series of attacks on the oil industry in December and January. Ijaw leaders said 30 people died in the Feb. 15 attacks on the Perezouweikore-gbene community by Nigerian military men attached to the Joint Task Force led by Brigadier General Elias Zamani. The leaders under the aegis of the Warri Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group (WIPMG) described the attack as unacceptable and asked the government to call General Zamani to order, adding that the action of his men was capable of plunging the Niger Delta into a fresh crisis, which according to them, "may be worse than what we have experienced in the past." "We condemn in its entirety the recent air bombardment of Ijaw community in Gbaramatu Kingdom in which 30 persons are confirmed dead," said WIPMG spokesperson, Chief Patrick Bigha. "We the leaders visited the scene of the incident and understand that the action was a deliberate military offensive against innocent and law-abiding civilians."