Nigerian militants said today they had carried out their first attack on an oil pipeline since an amnesty offer because the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua was delaying peace talks.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said its fighters, armed with rocket launchers and machineguns, carried out a "warning strike" overnight on a Royal Dutch Shell or Chevron pipeline in Abonemma, Rivers state.
There was no independent confirmation.
The military joint taskforce (JTF), which polices the Niger Delta, said it could not immediately verify the attack. Security contractors working in the oil industry said they had received no reports of a pipeline strike. Shell had no immediate comment.
If confirmed, the attack would be a severe blow to peace efforts by Yar'Adua's administration, which has pledged to spend billions of dollars developing the region after thousands of gunmen accepted a presidential amnesty which ended in October.
Reuters
