Nigerian militants declare oil war ISN SECURITY WATCH (Friday, 17 February: 16.27 CET) Tensions in oil-rich Nigeria are on the rise, with Nigerian militants declaring "total war" on foreign oil interests, and reports of military helicopter attacks on ethnic communities in the Niger Delta.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a militant group fighting for ethnic communities to have greater control over the region's vast oil wealth, have given oil companies until midnight on Friday to leave the region, the BBC reported. The group has recently blown up two oil pipelines, sabotaged two major oil fields, and abducted four foreign oil workers, though they were later released unharmed. Reuters also cited militants as saying that government forces had launched a second helicopter attack on ethnic Ijaw communities on Friday in the Niger Delta. The militants said they had attempted to shoot the helicopter down, but were uncertain if they had been successful. The group said the military had launched similar attacks on Wednesday. Nearly all of Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels of oil a day are produced in the 70,000 square kilometer Niger Delta. According to ISN Security Watch correspondent Dulue Mbachu, who recently visited the area, gas flares dot the landscape, denoting thousands of oil facilities in the midst of impoverished inhabitants who feel cheated out of the oil wealth produced in their land. Militant attacks in the past month have cut Nigeria's oil exports by about 10 per cent. (By ISN Security Watch staff, BBC, Reuters ) www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=14819 -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
