Militants want foreigners out
2008-09-13 17:08
Lagos - Militants battled Nigerian armed forces in the country's southern oil region on Saturday and threatened to launch reprisal raids on the oil infrastructure in Africa's biggest crude producer.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told The Associated Press in a statement that the Nigerian army and navy attacked their positions in a surprise raid on Rivers State, pouring in ground troops from landing craft and bombing their fighters from jet planes and helicopters.
They said three militants were killed.
Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa of the military task force charged with calming the restive oil region confirmed an armed engagement Saturday, saying it was a response to an ambush by militants.
Musa, however, said aircraft were only providing reconnaissance and had no details on casualties.
Foreign workers ordered to vacate
The militants vowed they would retaliate for the raid by striking back against Nigeria's oil industry, Africa's largest, and warned foreign workers to vacate the southern Niger Delta.
"Oil companies are warned to move out their workers within the next 24 hours because a hurricane is about to sweep through oil installations in the entire Niger Delta region," the statement said.
The militants are behind nearly three years of rising violence in the southern Niger Delta. They say their deeply impoverished areas haven't benefited from five decades of oil production and they're agitating for more federally held oil funds to be sent to the southern oil states.
The government acknowledges the grievances of many in the southern Niger Delta, but denounces the militants as criminals who use their struggle as a cover to make money from stealing crude oil and sell it overseas.
- AP