Militants claim Nigerian blast
2006-04-20 09:26
Lagos - Ethnic militants fighting government forces in Nigeria's southern oil region said they exploded a car bomb at a military base in the city of Port Harcourt, the main hub of the country's oil industry.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said that its fighters in the city detonated a remote-controlled car bomb inside the Bori military barracks in the city just before 20:00 on Wednesday.
The group said: "The act was symbolic rather than strategic", and a warning to the Nigerian military and oil companies. It reported no casualties.
Cops not available for comments
Residents of the area said they heard loud explosions followed by gunfire in Port Harcourt on Wednesday evening. Military and police officials were not immediately available for comments.
Attacks on oil installations since January in the main oil-producing Niger Delta, claimed by the movement, had cut more than 20% of Nigeria's daily oil exports of 2.5 million barrels and helped drive up world oil prices.
The movement claimed to be fighting for the interests of the mainly ethnic Ijaw inhabitants of the Niger Delta, a 70 000-square-kilometre region of swamps, rivers and creeks that remained deeply impoverished despite sitting on most of the oil resources of Africa's leading oil exporter.
13 foreign hostages seized
During attacks on oil installations operated by Royal Dutch Shell in January and February, the group seized a total of 13 foreign oil hostages.
All the hostages were later released unharmed, with the last three freed after five weeks on January 27.
President Olusegun Obasanjo had rejected the group's demands for the release of a jailed militia leader accused of treason and a former oil state governor held on corruption charges.
The movement also wanted Shell to pay $1.5bn to a group of Ijaw communities for environmental pollution as ordered by parliament. Shell was challenging the order in the courts.
Infrastructure development
Obasanjo on Tuesday unveiled a plan to create thousands of jobs and brought infrastructure development to the region he acknowledged was neglected by successive Nigerian governments.
The militant group had rejected the plan, saying its target was to achieve local control of the oil that was the mainstay of Nigeria's economy.
The group said: "What we have demanded for, and now, is the control of our resources which the Nigerian government has so far ignored.
"We wish to restate our warnings to oil companies still operating in the Niger Delta, more especially workers for such companies, to leave while they can."
Nigeria was Africa's leading oil exporter and the fifth-biggest source of the United States oil imports.
- AP