MEND [NIGER DELTA] THREATENS TO BOMB MOSQUES & ASSASINATE IMAMS

Nigeria’s Movement for the Emancipation of
the Niger Delta said it will start a bombing
campaign against mosques and Islamic
institutions, a week after the rebel group
said it killed 15 security personnel in the
southern oil-producing Bayelsa state.

“The bombings of mosques, hajj camps,
Islamic institutions, large congregations in
Islamic events and assassinations of clerics
that propagate doctrines of hate will form
the core mission of this crusade,”
MEND
spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an e-mailed
statement today. The campaign, codenamed
“Barbarossa,” will start May 31, it said.

MEND may consider a cease-fire if the
Christian Association of Nigeria, the Catholic
Church and the group’s suspected leader
Henry Okah intervene, according to the
statement. The threat comes as the
government of President Goodluck Jonathan
battles Islamist militants in the mainly
Muslim north and the capital, Abuja, in
which hundreds of people have died since
2009.

MEND, the main rebel group in the the
area, destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell Plc
(RDSA) oil well in Nembe in southern
Bayelsa state yesterday as part of an
operation it calls “Hurricane Exodus,”
Gbomo said.
Precious Okolobo, a Lagos-based
spokesman for Shell’s Nigerian unit, said he
couldn’t confirm the attack when contacted
by phone today.
Claimed Attack

MEND said April 3 it would resume attacks
in Africa’s largest oil producer after Okah
was sentenced last month to 24 years in
prison in South Africa. He was found guilty
of 13 counts of terrorism, including a
bombing claimed by MEND in which 12
people died in Abuja on Oct. 1, 2010.
On April 10, Nigerian authorities recovered
10 bodies of policemen killed four days
earlier in an attack on a boat by gunmen in
the oil-rich Niger River delta, Bayelsa state
Police Commissioner Kingsley Omire said.
Three policemen and the boat driver
jumped in the river in the southern state
when gunmen opened fire and were later
rescued, Omire said. The attack was claimed
by MEND, which said it killed all 15 people
aboard.
Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron
Corp. (CVX), Total SA and Eni SpA (ENI) run
joint ventures with state-owned Nigerian
National Petroleum Corp. that pump most
of the country’s oil. Nigeria depends on
crude exports for more than 95 percent of
foreign income and 80 percent of
government revenue, according to the
Petroleum Ministry.

While Okah denies being a leader of MEND,
he has said he commands the support of
many armed factions in Nigeria’s oil region.
Attacks including kidnappings and bombing
of oil installations by groups including
MEND cut more than 28 percent of Nigeria’s
oil output between 2006 and 2009,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The violence declined after thousands of
fighters accepted a government amnesty
offer in 2009 and disarmed.

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