Militants sabotaged major crude pipelines in Nigeria’s chaotic oil region, trimming crude production as the military widened an operation to uproot the fighters.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it had destroyed pipes run by Chevron Corp before dawn on Monday in Delta State, where the military is carrying out its largest operation in years against militants.
Chevron confirmed an incident on its pipeline network and said it caused them to shut down operations totaling 100,000 barrels per day.
Military spokesman Colonel Rabe Abubakar also confirmed the attack on the Chevron infrastructure, while saying armed forces had invaded a militant camp in nearby Rivers State.
But he said the fighting was minimal and didn’t think the military would send helicopter gunships and fighter jets as they had done last week.
The militants also said they had released three Filipino hostages seized this month.
The military launched its operation in Rivers State nearly two weeks ago, after rare clashes between armed forces and the militants in the Scotland-sized region of swamps, rivers and creeks. The militants said they have killed at least 12 soldiers and the military said it is searching for 11 troops missing in the area.
Amnesty International said hundreds of people may have been killed, including innocent bystanders to the violence. But the military has classed the entire Niger Delta region as a military zone, severely curtailing access for reporters and aid workers. A true death toll is not known.
The militants said they are fighting to force the federal government to send more of the oil-industry funds it controls to the Niger Delta, which remains deeply impoverished despite five decades of oil production. But criminality and militancy are closely linked, with many leaders of the militant groups growing rich by stealing oil from pipelines and selling it overseas.
An upsurge in violence that began in early 2006 has seen hundreds of foreign workers kidnapped and dozens of attacks on crucial oil infrastructure. Hostages are normally released unharmed although several have died during botched snatch or rescue attempts.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS