Nairobi/Abuja - Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), on Monday accused the
government of indiscriminately bombing villages in the oil-producing
Niger Delta as a flare-up in fighting continued.
'Sunday ... revealed the desperation of the Nigerian armed forces
in a war it has no way of winning,' MEND Spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in
an e-mailed statement. 'The world witnessed the indiscriminate use of
missiles and bombs on several defenseless Ijaw communities in Delta
state.'
The militants and the government have been issuing claims and
counter-claims about military victories, which are hard to verify due
to travel restrictions in the Niger Delta.
However, a spokesman for the Ijaw National Congress, which
represents the Niger Delta's largest ethnic group, backed up MEND's
statement and accused the military of killing over a thousand
civilians.
'They ... bombard entire communities from the air, sea and land,'
Victor Burubo, spokesman for the Ijaw National Congress, told the
BBC.
The Nigerian military denied the accusations.
Hostilities between MEND and government troops have escalated
since Wednesday, when clashes took broke out and an affiliate of the
militant group seized the MV Spirit, a tanker chartered by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.
The Nigerian military said it freed 13 of the hostages - four
Nigerian and nine Filipino - on Friday when it attacked a camp
belonging to General Tompolo, the leader of the MEND faction who took
the hostages.
However, MEND said that two hostages were killed in the crossfire
and that it would hand the bodies over to the Red Cross. The released
hostages said that the two dead men were Filipino.
MEND added that General Tompolo had survived the attack and had
relocated to another camp with his men.
The militant group, which last week issued an ultimatum to oil
companies, to leave the Niger Delta, on Sunday it said it had blown
up two oil and gas pipelines.
MEND and other groups operating in the Niger Delta say they are
fighting for a better share of wealth from the oil-rich region for
local residents, who say the oil industry has ruined their
agriculture and fishing livelihoods.
However, the government says the rebels are criminal gangs intent
on stealing oil or making money through extortion. Expatriate workers
are often kidnapped for ransom or for use as human shields.
Attacks on oil facilities and workers have cut oil production in
Nigeria, one of the world's largest crude oil exporters, by around 20
per cent since 2006.
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