The government of the southern Nigerian Rivers State yesterday welcomed peace talks between the Abuja authorities and the leader of a separatist movement fighting for the control of the country's oil wealth.
"It is a positive development. It will go a long way to further reduce tensions in the Niger Delta," government spokesman Emmanuel Okah told reporters.
PHOTO: EPA
Asked if he was optimistic a settlement could be reached to avert a new rebel offensive planned for today, rebel leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari said: "The president has set no preconditions for the talks."
"We are due to meet today at 10am. We told them we are leaving today after the talks."
Mujahid Abubakar Dokubo Asari, leader of Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) which has issued threats against foreign oil installations and workers, began a meeting with the Nigerian government in Abuja on Wednesday.
Asari claimed he met President Olusegun Obasanjo for two hours on Wednesday and another round of talks was scheduled for late in the evening.
Nigeria's Information Minister confirmed that talks were going on, but did not say if the rebel leader met Obasanjo personally.
Rivers government spokesman Okah told reporters Asari had "tested the will of Nigerian federal government by attempting to acquire part of its territory for illegal bunkering," a term used for the stealing of crude oil from pipelines and selling it off to buy arms and ammunition.
"We, in Rivers State, have no problems with the development. If Nigeria has chosen to talk with him, so be it," he said.
Asari leads a rebel group which says it is fighting for the rights of the impoverished ethnic Ijaw in the Niger Delta region, the center of the west African country's substantial oil industry.
The gang has been operating in Port Harcourt and its surrounding creeks, carrying out illegal bunkering to finance its armed struggle.
Some 500 people have died in gang violence in the past month in Port Harcourt, the hub of Nigeria's oil-rich Niger delta region, according to Amnesty International, but the government said only 13 were killed.
The government deployed troops to the region two weeks ago following fighting between two armed gangs for control of the area's illegal crude oil trafficking and stealing.
Asari on Monday asked multinational oil firms to leave their bases in the Niger Delta, but the military have declared a round-the-clock offensive to dislodge the gang from the region.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS