November 15,2008:
Niger delta rebel group MEND has
been rescuing people from kidnapping gangs, and letting most of them go free.
But foreigners, especially Britons, are being kept in an attempt to force the
government to do right by the people of the Niger delta (who have gained little
from decades of oil field operations.) MEND is also demanding that Britain stop
training the Nigerian military. In response, the military is preparing major
assaults on two known MEND camps. This is no secret, and MEND threatens another
wave of attacks on oil facilities if the military moves on the two camps. The
military and MEND have been dancing around each other for months, unwilling to
go head-to-head. Apparently that is about to change.
There are
growing public displays of outrage at the corruption among public officials,
but little action to stop it. A few corrupt officials have been removed from
office, but the large scale looting of the oil revenue continues.
November 7,
2008: Six sailors died, along with
several gang members, when the navy tried to intervene and stop a gun battle
between two rival gangs in the Niger delta.
November 6,
2008: In the Niger Delta, some twenty speedboats full of armed oil thieves,
attacked a military camp. The only injury was to a civilian killed in the crossfire.
The gang was apparently trying to intimidate the military into staying away
from the oil stealing operations that finance the gangs.
November 5,
2008: The rebel group MEND said it had rescued the foreign engineer who had
been kidnapped on the 3rd. The MEND rescuers also freed a second man, a
Nigerian, who was also be held by the kidnapping gang. The engineer was then
released by MEND.
Marines
found and attacked a kidnappers camp near the Bakassi peninsula, and attempted
to rescue ten oil workers that had been kidnapped from a boat near the Cameroon
border a week earlier. One of the hostages was killed. Rebels belonging to the NDDSC
(Niger Delta Defense and Security Council) were responsible. The NDDSC wants the Bakassi peninsula returned to Nigerian
control, and compensation paid to the Nigerians who left the Bakassi peninsula
after Cameroon took control of the area last year.
November 3,
2008: A foreign engineer was kidnapped
from a construction site in Port Harcourt (the major city in the Niger River
delta oil region.)