Nigeria: Militant group abandoning two-week-old ceasefire

(SomaliNet) Blaming Britain\'s pledge to back the Nigerian government in the country\'s oil region, Nigeria\'s main militant group said on Thursday that it is abandoning a two-week-old ceasefire.

The group will resume attacks in Nigeria\'s oil-rich river delta region as of midnight on Saturday, a top leader with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said. He spoke anonymously to avoid identification and capture by the authorities.

The leader said they were calling off the ceasefire because of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown\'s promise at the G8 summit in Japan to support the Nigerian government in its efforts to end violence in the oil-producing region.


UK Premier’s comments amount to \"military support to the illegal government of Umaru Yar\'Adua,\" the leader of the group, known as MEND, said in an email.

\"To demonstrate our seriousness to the UK support of an injustice, MEND will be calling off its unilateral ceasefire,\" the e-mail said.

Meanwhile, MEND is behind two years of crippling attacks on Nigeria\'s oil infrastructure that have sliced Nigeria\'s normal daily oil output by a quarter and contributed to the worldwide surge in the price of crude.

The group said in June they would boycott a government peace summit, but halted attacks on June 24 until further notice. MEND said then that they were heeding calls by elders to give peace efforts another try.

The militants previously declared a ceasefire in 2007 after President Umaru Yar\'Adua\'s May 29 inauguration, saying they were willing to join a peace process.

Many of the inhabitants of the Niger river delta region live in crippling poverty despite the riches that the oil pumped out from under their villages bring the government. - Sapa-AP