MEND Claims Saturday Attack In Bayelsa And Says More Will Follow

Rebels have claimed responsibility for a Saturday attack on a Joint Task Force patrol boat on the Nembe-Bassanbiri waterway in Bayelsa state, and announced plans to begin a violent campaign of disrupting oil output in Delta.

The group known as Movement for the Emancipation of The Niger Delta (MEND) made this know through an e-mailed statement from the group's spokesman Jomo Gbomo.

Gombo described the "relatively insignificant” January 25 attack "a sign of things to come." The group threatened to reduce Nigerian oil production "to zero by 2015" and dispel all "thieving oil companies"

During its planned campaign of violence,

"MEND will pay considerable attention to dealing with the occupying Nigerian government forces in the Niger Delta that stand in our way," Gbomo added.

Bloomberg reports that attacks including kidnappings and bombing of oil installations by groups including MEND cut more than 28 percent of Nigeria’s oil output between 2006 and 2009.

The violence decreased after thousands of MEND fighters accepted a government amnesty offer in 2009 and disarmed. Some now provide protection for the international oil companies they used to attack.

But some disgruntled MEND activists threaten continued sabotage.
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