A Nigerian militant group responsible for most of the attacks that have crippled the country’s oil industry has called off a one-month truce, the group’s spokesman said today.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) called the truce to give the new Nigerian leader time to set up talks on its demand for local communities in the impoverished delta to control oil revenues. However they say they have been kept on the sidelines.
“Whenever the Nigerian government is willing to dialogue directly with militia groups, we will be willing to make ourselves available,” said the spokesman, who uses the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo, in an email to Reuters.
“We have called off our truce. It is ridiculous for our guns to remain silent while the military murders our civilians with impunity,” he said.
More kidnappings and violence seems likely.