NIGERIA: Nigerian militants who have sabotaged oil facilities and kidnapped workers in the southern Niger Delta threatened to stage a series of attacks over the next few days.

Record ID: 236548

  • Title: NIGERIA: Nigerian militants who have sabotaged oil facilities and kidnapped workers in the southern Niger Delta threatened to stage a series of attacks over the next few days.
  • Date: 18th January 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE: FLAME
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA1JFYVLNN8RO5LD0VLOMKTI89Z
  • Story Text: Nigerian militants who have sabotaged oil facilities and kidnapped workers in the southern Niger Delta threatened on Tuesday to stage a series of attacks over the next few days to show oil companies their power.
    In an e-mail statement, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta which is holding four foreign hostages also threatened to use more aggressive tactics against oil workers and their families in the vast wetlands region from Feb. 1.
    "In the next few days we will carry out a series of attacks to prove to all companies that we alone, your hosts, can guarantee your security," the statement said.
    The militants called on oil workers to leave the vast region of mangrove swamps and tidal creeks where almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels a day is produced.
    The four oil workers held hostage by the group spoke to Reuters by telephone on their sixth day in captivity on Monday, listing their captors' demands and warning the military against any attempted intervention or rescue.
    The four -- an American, a Briton, a Bulgarian and a Honduran -- said they were being treated well, but that their living conditions were not comfortable.
    On behalf of the captors, the Briton delivered a 48-hour ultimatum to the Nigerian government to accede to five demands and called for negotiations.
    Royal Dutch Shell evacuated about 330 workers from four oil flow stations after the latest attack on Sunday, and is considering more withdrawals amid uncertainty over where the militants will strike next, a senior oil industry official said.
    Two attacks last Wednesday cut Nigeria's oil output by 226,000 barrels a day, or 10 percent, and this production is still shut almost a week later.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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