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| Africa Subsaharan |
| MEND claims Niger Delta car bomb |
| 2006-04-30 |
| Nigerian militants said on Saturday they had detonated a car bomb near a refinery in Warri in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta, extending a campaign of attacks that has cut Nigerian exports by a quarter. No information was immediately available on whether there were any casualties or damage. A Reuters reporter in Warri who was 4 km (2.5 miles) away from the refinery heard an explosion at the time when the militants said they detonated the bomb. A spokesman for Delta state said there had been a blast but had no further details. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands more local control over the region's oil wealth, said the bombing was a warning to all people working in OPEC member Nigeria's oil industry, and particularly to China. ``We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta ... The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude (oil) places its citizens in our line of fire,'' said MEND. Earlier this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Nigeria and signed deals to explore Nigerian oilfields in return for a commitment to invest $4 billion in infrastructure to help develop Africa's most populous country. MEND has staged a series of kidnappings and attacks against the oil industry in the world's eighth-biggest exporter that has forced companies to cut production by 550,000 barrels per day. This has contributed to recent spikes in world oil prices, including last week's record high at over $75 per barrel. The militants, who have abducted a total of 13 foreign oil workers this year and held some of them for several weeks, have warned all oil workers to leave the delta and vowed to halt exports completely. They have now freed all the hostages. MEND said it used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kgof dynamite in the bombing. The use of car bombs is unusual in Nigeria, but it was MEND's second such attack in nine days. ``Our operatives in Delta state in the Niger Delta planted and detonated one car bomb amidst petroleum product bridging tankers located close to the refinery in Warri,'' it said. The militants have provided accurate details of their attacks in the past. The Warri refinery has not been functioning for several months and no information was immediately available on whether any petroleum products were on site at the time of the blast. It was not possible to get close to the area on Saturday night as Warri, a volatile city with a history of inter-ethnic violence, is under a near-curfew and it is dangerous to move around the city late at night. MEND said Saturday's blast was similar to another car bomb attack they staged in Port Harcourt, another major city in the Niger Delta, on April 20. That bombing, close to an army barracks, killed two people. A little-known group that first appeared in December, MEND is a coalition of militias which the government accuses of involvement in a lucrative trade in stolen crude oil. But its demands -- which also include the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation for oil spills -- are shared by many activists in the area, where most people live in poverty despite the riches being pumped from their land. President Olusegun Obasanjo has tried to address some of the grievances by promising to build a $1.8 billion highway across the delta, a region almost the size of England, and create 20,000 jobs. But MEND rejected the initiative. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |