The Niger Delta Avengers appear to be on rampage with the report of attacks on five major oil pipelines and installations in the oil rich region of southern Nigeria where the group operates from. These attacks mark renewed hostilities following a “calm” period from June 16, when the Avengers attacked an NNPC pipeline in Akwa Ibom up until June 30, 2016.
The new militant group has claimed responsibility for five attacks which occurred between Friday night and Sunday morning, most of them pipelines belonging to the state-owned oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and two major oil wells belonging to Chevron Nigeria Limited.
In a tweet late Saturday, July 2, 2016, the militants claimed responsibility for an attack on an NNPC pipeline to Warri Refinery. “At 9:15pm on Friday the @NDAvengers blow up Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Crude Oil Trunk Line to Warri Refinery,” the group said.
“At 11:26pm on Saturday @NDAvengers blow up two NPDC major crude trunk lines close to Batan flowstation in Delta state,” another tweet said four hours later.
Another tweet claimed responsibility for attacks on Chevron pipelines in Delta. “At 1:15am on Sunday @NDAvengers blow up two major Chevron Oil Wells. WELL 7 and WELL 8 close to Abiteye flow station in Delta state,” the group claimed.
The group congratulated its strike teams. “Well done, soldiers,” the group said on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/NDAvengers/status/749367132358606849
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Who are the Niger Delta Avengers
Niger Delta Avengers is a new militancy group that is operating in the oil-rich region of Southern Nigeria.
The militants say they are waging a war for a free Niger Delta Republic in what it tags, Operation Red Economy, with a view of halting crude oil production in Nigeria to force the government to grant the group’s demands.
The Avengers claim it has reduced oil production in the country to less than one million barrels a day. An analyst at VOA News corroborates the militants’ claims saying that oil production has dropped below one million barrels a day due to the waves of attacks on pipelines and oil installations.
The militant group has released its rules of engagement and says that it doesn’t kill anybody or attack oil workers or soldiers. The Delta Avengers called on all other groups operating in the region to abide by these rules of engagement. “We need God now, more than ever,” the group said in a statement.
The Niger Delta Avengers has presented an 11-point demand to President Muhammadu Buhari and the first is the implementation of the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference. [Download Conference report HERE.]
Pro-Biafra secessionist group, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has pledged “total allegiance” to the Niger Delta Avengers extolling the militant group for supporting the cause of a free Biafra. MASSOB embraces the tenets of nonviolence. It is led by Ralph Uwazuruike, a lawyer.
Last week, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, another secessionist group pledged its support for the Niger Delta Avengers, saying the groups’ ideal of freedom align.
