WARRI, Nigeria — Nigerian security forces clashed with oil militants and Biafran secessionists in separate bloody confrontations Monday that killed at least 20 civilians and two police officers, officials and witnesses. The violence erupted in Nigeria's restive south as the military mounted an offensive in the oil rich south-central Niger Delta and separatists protested in the southeast.

Over the weekend, soldiers fired on speedboats believed to be carrying Niger Delta militants preparing to strike oil installations and killed or wounded an unknown number, army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said.

The Ijaw Youth Council, a community group, accused soldiers of firing Saturday night on a speedboat trying to evacuate civilians wounded in a military siege of Oporoza, a town reachable only by water or air.

Community leaders say civilians have been wounded and beaten up by soldiers demanding that residents hand over members of the Niger Delta Avengers, a new group that has claimed attacks on strategic pipelines that have halved oil production in a country that used to be Africa's biggest petroleum producer.

The offensive comes as the Avengers have mounted an increasingly fierce campaign targeting oil installations. In recent days, facilities belonging to the Dutch-British Shell company, Italy's Agip, and the U.S. oil giant Chevron have been targeted.


The Avengers have given the oil companies a May 31 deadline to leave Nigeria's southern, oil-producing Niger Delta.

"Watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world," the Avengers warned Saturday, addressing international and indigenous oil companies and Nigeria's military.

Army chief Maj. Gen. Tukur Buratai said the army will not tolerate the militants "killing our soldiers," but did not provide any details about military casualties. Local residents have reported the deaths of at least 10 army and navy personnel and about 30 police officers in the Niger Delta this year.

Community chieftain Elekute Macaulay said reinforcements arrived early Monday at Oporoza to widen the military siege. He said half of the 40,000 inhabitants have fled to the bush and creeks, and others are afraid to leave their homes.

In separate developments, security forces battled secessionists rallying to commemorate heroes of the 1967-1970 civil war to create a separate state of Biafra in southeast Nigeria. About 1 million people died in that war.

On Monday, five civilians and two police officers were killed during protests by secessionists in the southeastern city of Asaba, according to police Superintendent Charles Muka.

The secessionists said another 15 civilians were killed further south in Onitsha, but police said nobody was killed because security forces never used live ammunition to disperse the crowd.

About 600 people have been arrested, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra said. Police said the protests were illegal because organizers did not have permits.

The Niger Delta Avengers have said they may ally themselves with the Biafran secessionists and make similar demands for a breakaway state from Nigeria.

Soldiers in the Niger Delta are demanding that villagers turn over fighters of the Avengers, and its alleged leader Government "Tompolo" Ekpemupolo, Macaulay said. Tompolo has denied involvement with the Avengers but the attacks began shortly after an arrest warrant was issued for him that claimed the theft of money from government contracts to guard oil installations.

Oil militants are angry that the government is winding down a 2009 amnesty program that paid 30,000 militants to guard the installations they once attacked. They are demanding a bigger share of Nigeria's oil wealth for residents of the Niger Delta, where oil pollution has destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers and fishermen.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/05/30/world/africa/ap-af-nigeria-oil-attacks.html?_r=0&referer=https://

Investors would start bypassing Nigeria for other stable countries. Buhari ignited this crisis by calling us 5%.

It's happening. The international community is becoming aware of PMB's hypocrisy.

this is just too complicated, NDA taking the bull by the horns which is in return taking tolls on their people, NA killing civilians with the claims that they want to curb the activities of the NDA.
All is well..... ogadinma

Crazy nation

ABUJA/ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday visit the Niger Delta region, rocked by attacks on oil and gas facilities, for the first time since taking office a year ago, an official said on Monday.

The visit was announced as the Niger Delta Avengers militant group, which has claimed a string of recent attacks, issued a warning to oil firms in the southern region that their "facilities and personnel will bear the brunt of our fury," according to a statement.
Buhari said on Sunday said the government would hold talks with leaders in Nigeria's main oil-producing region to address their grievances, in a bid to stop a surge in pipeline attacks.
Buhari will visit a Niger Delta area called Ogoniland to launch a much-delayed programme to clean up areas heavily polluted by oil spills, said the government official who asked not to be named.
Residents in the southern swamp areas, where oil giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron operate, have for years complained about the oil industry's pollution and about economic marginalisation by the government.
Some have taken up arms, and a surge in attacks on energy installations has cut Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year low.
A militant group called Niger Delta Avengers, which staged several attacks in recent weeks, has accused Buhari, a Muslim from the north, ignoring local problems by having never visited the Christian region in the south.
"To the international oil companies and indigenous oil companies, it's going to be bloody this time around," the group said in a statement late on Monday. It did not elaborate.
Local officials and Western allies such as Britain have told Buhari that moving army reinforcements to the Delta region would not be enough to stop the attacks and that the population's grievances should be dealt with.
On Thursday, Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said an amnesty programme for former militants, signed in 2009 to quell a previous insurgency, needed to improve.
The scheme providing cash benefits and job training to those who lay down their arms has had its funding cut by two thirds. Buhari has also upset former militants by ending contracts to protect pipelines, part of a drive to tackle graft.
(Writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Andrew Roche, G Crosse)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nigerias-buhari-visit-niger-delta-first-time-week-202505403.html

Nigeria is up for sale.

Things has really changed within this regime of change
I pity Buhari, he will aged exponentially as against graceful aging.

Please every factions should drop their weapons lets work for a united Nigeria.

Say no to tribalism

Proudly Igbo

Proudly Lagosian

It has begun...ICC loading...

Cage them b4 they becum anoda monster, anoda boko haram

God is watching.

TippyTop:
Investors would start bypassing Nigeria for other stable countries. Buhari ignited this crisis by calling us 5%.

You are 5%. Why is the truth just so hard to take in?

This man will end up dragging us on the mud

Buhari go soon land for jail... continue to dey kill unarmed protesters

It's really getting worse by the day, all of these would have been averted if Mr president had traded with caution, nw the 5% is no more #pathetic

Congrats to buhari. Pls kill every1 in SS n SE. We knw u r a hateful n tribalistic president of d north. Zombies will say d New York Times belongs to Ipob

Something is odd when NY times is breaking this news before our own news media.

Wait oh! OP title says Oil miltants whereas the story is about the IPOB protests.

Not sure whether it is the OP or NY Times that is being deliberately misleading

LordVarys:
WARRI, Nigeria — Nigerian security forces clashed with oil militants and Biafran secessionists in separate bloody confrontations Monday that killed at least 20 civilians and two police officers, officials and witnesses. The violence erupted in Nigeria's restive south as the military mounted an offensive in the oil rich south-central Niger Delta and separatists protested in the southeast.

Over the weekend, soldiers fired on speedboats believed to be carrying Niger Delta militants preparing to strike oil installations and killed or wounded an unknown number, army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said.

The Ijaw Youth Council, a community group, accused soldiers of firing Saturday night on a speedboat trying to evacuate civilians wounded in a military siege of Oporoza, a town reachable only by water or air.

Community leaders say civilians have been wounded and beaten up by soldiers demanding that residents hand over members of the Niger Delta Avengers, a new group that has claimed attacks on strategic pipelines that have halved oil production in a country that used to be Africa's biggest petroleum producer.

The offensive comes as the Avengers have mounted an increasingly fierce campaign targeting oil installations. In recent days, facilities belonging to the Dutch-British Shell company, Italy's Agip, and the U.S. oil giant Chevron have been targeted.


The Avengers have given the oil companies a May 31 deadline to leave Nigeria's southern, oil-producing Niger Delta.

"Watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world," the Avengers warned Saturday, addressing international and indigenous oil companies and Nigeria's military.

Army chief Maj. Gen. Tukur Buratai said the army will not tolerate the militants "killing our soldiers," but did not provide any details about military casualties. Local residents have reported the deaths of at least 10 army and navy personnel and about 30 police officers in the Niger Delta this year.

Community chieftain Elekute Macaulay said reinforcements arrived early Monday at Oporoza to widen the military siege. He said half of the 40,000 inhabitants have fled to the bush and creeks, and others are afraid to leave their homes.

In separate developments, security forces battled secessionists rallying to commemorate heroes of the 1967-1970 civil war to create a separate state of Biafra in southeast Nigeria. About 1 million people died in that war.

On Monday, five civilians and two police officers were killed during protests by secessionists in the southeastern city of Asaba, according to police Superintendent Charles Muka.

The secessionists said another 15 civilians were killed further south in Onitsha, but police said nobody was killed because security forces never used live ammunition to disperse the crowd.

About 600 people have been arrested, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra said. Police said the protests were illegal because organizers did not have permits.

The Niger Delta Avengers have said they may ally themselves with the Biafran secessionists and make similar demands for a breakaway state from Nigeria.

Soldiers in the Niger Delta are demanding that villagers turn over fighters of the Avengers, and its alleged leader Government "Tompolo" Ekpemupolo, Macaulay said. Tompolo has denied involvement with the Avengers but the attacks began shortly after an arrest warrant was issued for him that claimed the theft of money from government contracts to guard oil installations.

Oil militants are angry that the government is winding down a 2009 amnesty program that paid 30,000 militants to guard the installations they once attacked. They are demanding a bigger share of Nigeria's oil wealth for residents of the Niger Delta, where oil pollution has destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers and fishermen.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/05/30/world/africa/ap-af-nigeria-oil-attacks.html?_r=0&referer=https://

Finally!!!

catlova2:


You are 5%. Why is the truth just so hard to take in?

Well the same 5% owns the resources of this country, the rest are leeches.
Some of the 5% are presently holding the country to ransome, deal with it.

TippyTop:
Investors would start bypassing Nigeria for other stable countries. Buhari ignited this crisis by calling us 5%.

He called you 5% with mouth why can't you call him 0%.
Are trying to justify vandalism.

Na Lie. They killed nobody.

wahala shaaa! Guys please I beg you! let's leave out this 5% talks and all that! What we have before us is war staring us eye-ball to eye-ball! We can't go back to the way the SS was before Late Yaradua threw in the amnesty approach! Let's pray for an agreement to be reached oh! If bombing and killings wahala increas come join this hunger wey dey the land, na DIE be that oh! Chai! Naija my Naija! Which kind country be this nau?

This is an independent reporter...

And y is d truth hard for u dat d 5percent own d oil ur buhari is killing for. Tot he said he won't depend on oil. Parasitic 97percent. Hypocrites

catlova2:


You are 5%. Why is the truth just so hard to take in?

Abi o! even 4% sef

I was gonna ask how many percent he feels they are

catlova2:


You are 5%. Why is the truth just so hard to take in?

It's sure most of the people reading lack understanding.. Read between the lines people, they used seperatists and militants. Neither are compliment for so called "freedom fighters"..

but the attacks began shortly after an arrest warrant was issued for him that claimed the theft of money from government contracts to guard oil installations.

The offensive comes as the Avengers have mounted an increasingly fierce campaign targeting oil installations. In recent days, facilities belonging to the Dutch-British Shell company, Italy's Agip, and the U.S. oil giant Chevron have been targeted.

Nytimes put this caveat, Chevron is an American company, the hit on their facilities won't be applauded..

bubu rip

NOC1:

He called you 5% with mouth why can't you call him 0%.
Are trying to justify vandalism.

Am basically saying the commander in chief is supposed to be father of the nation throughout his tenure.
Nigeria has never been this divided since the civil war, thanks to Bubu.

things fall apart. Buhari caused all this with his unguarded utterances.