Nigerian rebels have threatened an "all out war" in the oil-producing regions of the country. The rebels point to the environmental degradation and exploitation of petroleum resources as the basis of their struggle.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
By Samuel Tife Samuel Tife
Mon Dec 6, 1:48 pm ET
WARRI, Nigeria (Reuters) – A militant faction in Nigeria's Niger Delta said on Monday it had ruptured an oil pipeline in response to what it said was the killing of innocent civilians during a military offensive last week.
The Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF) said it had struck a "major pipeline" belonging to state-run oil firm the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) close to the Batan flow station in Delta state on Sunday night.
NNPC declined to comment and there was no independent confirmation of an attack.
Last Wednesday a military taskforce (JTF) comprising the army, navy and air force began raiding three camps believed to belong to John Togo, the suspected leader of the NDLF, close to the Ayakoromo and Okrika communities in Delta.
"We urge President Goodluck Jonathan and the leaders of the Niger Delta to call the army chief of staff to moderate (the) military onslaught ... and never to cause terrorism again by committing genocide in harmless, innocent and poor Ijaw communities," the NDLF said in a statement.
The Ijaw ethnic group is the largest in the Niger Delta, and some activists have been engaged for decades in a struggle -- sometimes violent -- against Western oil firms perceived to have over-run and polluted their homelands.
Fighters loyal to Togo hid in buildings in Ayakoromo to escape the military raids before engaging in a gun battle with the security forces, witnesses said. Several rows of houses were torched during the battle.
Some civilians were wounded as they fled in canoes and several were killed, according to rights groups.
"We have learned that less than 10 people may have died. The majority of those who died, we strongly believe, were militants," military spokesman Timothy Antigha said.
FURTHER CLASHES FEARED
The military said it would continue to hunt down Togo and his followers and said it had uncovered plans for the group to attack oil and gas facilities in neighboring Bayelsa state.
"John Togo and his gang will be dealt with ruthlessly if and whenever they are seen in Bayelsa state," sector commander Victor Ezugwu warned in a statement.
"Any community that harbours ... or renders any form of assistance to John Togo and his gang does so at their peril."
Resurgent unrest in the Niger Delta risks undermining the credibility of President Goodluck Jonathan in the run-up to elections next April and his administration is keen to show he has a grip on criminality there.
He is the first Ijaw head of state and brokered an amnesty with militants last August, which saw thousands of gunmen lay down their weapons and brought more than a year without significant attacks on the oil industry.
Some activists said scores of civilians died in last week's military offensive, which lasted several days, but the Ijaw Youth Council civil rights group, which inspected Ayakoromo after the raids, said nine civilians had died.
The Red Cross said its aid workers had seen about 30 civilians evacuated to a military barracks and others sheltering in primary schools at Ayakoromo. Hundreds of displaced women, in need of food and water after days in the creeks, arrived at the compound of a prominent Ijaw leader in the nearby town of Warri.
Former militants have complained that while some of their commanders received handsome payments under the amnesty program, they still face a future without jobs.
The NDLF called for an international conference "to enable aggrieved ex-militants to address grey areas" of the amnesty program but said its aim was not to embarrass Jonathan.
(Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall in Lagos, Joe Brock in Abuja, Austin Ekeinde in Port Harcourt; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Matthew Jones))
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