Nigeria Seeks Breakthrough To Quell Oil Violence
Nji Che - All Headline News African Correspondent Abuja, Nigeria (AHN) - Nigeria has summoned its senior army officials to meet in Abuja for crisis talks amid a rise in oil violence around the Niger Delta region. Officials were summoned a few days after a militant group said it had killed 17 soldiers in two clashes. A militant group which calls itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said, in an email statement, the fighting occurred next to Shell's oil installations in the region. The group said it seized two military gunboats. MEND said it also killed two soldiers and six sailors in another clash. 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 has 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 last few months have seen a surge in militant attacks and pipeline leaks that have cut roughly a quarter of Nigeria's crude oil production. At least 600,000 barrels of crude oil production has been lost as a result of the pipelines sabotage.
Article © All Headline News - All Rights Reserved
|
