The new militant group operating in the oil-rich region of southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers has announced a new attack on a pipeline belonging to the state-owned oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
In a tweet late Saturday, July 2, 2016, the militants claimed responsibility for an attack on an NNPC pipeline to Warri Refinery. “At 9:15pm on Friday the @NDAvengers blow up Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Crude Oil Trunk Line to Warri Refinery,” the group said.
This attack marks renewed hostilities following a “calm” period from June 16, when the Avengers attacked an NNPC pipeline in Akwa Ibom up until June 30, 2016.
https://twitter.com/NDAvengers/status/749367132358606849
Who are the Niger Delta Avengers
Niger Delta Avengers is a new militancy group that is operating in the oil-rich region of Southern Nigeria.
The militants say they are waging a war for a free Niger Delta Republic in what it tags, Operation Red Economy, with a view of halting crude oil production in Nigeria to force the government to grant the group’s demands.
The Avengers claim it has reduced oil production in the country to less than one million barrels a day. An analyst at VOA News corroborates the militants’ claims saying that oil production has dropped below one million barrels a day due to the waves of attacks on pipelines and oil installations.
The militant group has released its rules of engagement and says that it doesn’t kill anybody or attack oil workers or soldiers. The Delta Avengers called on all other groups operating in the region to abide by these rules of engagement. “We need God now, more than ever,” the group said in a statement.
The Niger Delta Avengers has presented an 11-point demand to President Muhammadu Buhari and the first is the implementation of the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference. [Download Conference report HERE.]
Pro-Biafra secessionist group, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has pledged “total allegiance” to the Niger Delta Avengers extolling the militant group for supporting the cause of a free Biafra. MASSOB embraces the tenets of nonviolence. It is led by Ralph Uwazuruike, a lawyer.
Last week, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, another secessionist group pledged its support for the Niger Delta Avengers, saying the groups’ ideal of freedom align.
