The Twitter account of the new militant group operating in the oil-rich region of Southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers, @NDAvengers has been suspended.
This action was observed on Monday, July 4, 2016. The reason for the suspension is unknown. But a visit to the militants’ twitter account brings up a suspension message.
According to Twitter rules, an account can be suspended if it is used for abusive behaviour. One of such is “making threats of violence or promote violence”. The Avengers use the Twitter handle to announce its attacks on oil installations in the troubled Niger Delta region.
The Niger Delta Avengers, over the weekend, announced a wave of attacks, it’s biggest yet, on five major pipelines and oil wells in Nigeria where it is waging a campaign against oil production in the region.
The Avengers’ website was shut down briefly when Google closed the hosting account for the website – www.nigerdeltavengers.com. But the group quickly bounced with a new website address – www.nigerdeltaavengers.org and debunked reports that its website was shut down.
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.
