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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • MEND Makes Headlines With Most Ambitious Oil Attack Yet

    June 19, 2008 By Sonia Schmanski
    The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND (seen in a photo by Dulue Mbachu, courtesy of ISN Security Watch and Flickr), has attacked Nigeria’s oil infrastructure again, this time significantly enough to cause Royal Dutch Shell to suspend its production at the damaged facility. Worldwide crude price levels rose in the wake of the attack, as well as amidst concerns that a Nigerian oil worker strike could be imminent.

    The attack, which took place today in the Bonga oil field some 75 miles off Nigeria’s coast, is being described as unusually ambitious for a group that has focused mainly on the creeks and swamps of the Niger Delta. In a statement released to the media, the group explained that “the location for today’s attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that off-shore oil exploration is far from our reach.” Shell spokeswoman Eurwen Thomas said that the attack marked the first time MEND has managed to achieve the sophisticated planning and acquire the advanced equipment required to successfully target such a remote rig.

    Though Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and a member of OPEC, most areas remain mired in poverty and plagued by pollution. Widespread resentment over inequitable revenue disbursement has spawned numerous groups agitating for a greater share of the country’s vast oil wealth. MEND is only the latest of these groups, but it has made a name for itself through attention-grabbing attacks like this one. The group’s claim to have captured an American worker was substantiated by private security officials, who said that two other workers were injured. Since the upswing in violence that began in early 2006, Nigerian rebel groups have taken more than 200 hostages.

    Eleven percent of U.S. oil imports—46 percent of Nigeria’s total production—come from Nigeria, making this escalating series of attacks particularly relevant to American officials, and perhaps providing incentives to mediate talks between Nigeria’s government and Niger Delta militants, which have thus far been unsuccessful. Yet negotiations will be difficult between such polarized players. Said MEND, “the oil companies and their collaborators do not have any place to hide in conducting their nefarious activities.”
    Topics: Africa, environmental security, natural resources, poverty
    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/18337694112852162181 Geoff Dabelko

      Update on developments including a possible cease-fire from Reuters.

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/04423905315382313681 Sonia Schmanski

      Monday’s Financial Times reports that MEND has announced a temporary halt in its campaign against oil companies in an effort to “give dialogue a chance.”

    • Nate Stratton

      As a future Army officer, the prospect of armed conflict in Africa interests me because of the possibility of a future American military deployment there. Because of the petroleum issue, this budding disagreement between disgruntled Nigerians and their government might soon involve the United States. AFRICOM, the unified command which oversees the African continent, is in a unique position to intervene on America’s behalf because of their hybrid composition which consists of military as well as diplomatic assets. Unlike other foreign disputes the US is currently monitoring, this one requires diplomatic finesse as well as military muscle, and AFRICOM seems just the right kind of organization to handle this delicate situation.

      http://www.africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp

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