Who are the Niger Delta Avengers? Deep Sea Divers, Sophisticated Explosives, and Sabotage

from Earth First! Newswire

Oil production has been cut by 40 percent, and is now at a 22-year low in Nigeria as a new wave of militants strike oil platforms, pipelines, and terminals throughout the polluted Niger River Delta.

Today, May 26, a blast destroyed a power line to Chevron’s Escravos terminal in Nigeria, shutting it down for the time being. “It is a crude line which means all activities in Chevron are grounded,” a source told Reuters.

This comes less than a week after the Escravos trunkline was sabotaged, according to IGBeret and just over a week after militants attacked a different Chevron platform in the Delta.

Most of the recent spate of attacks have been claimed by a group called the Niger Delta Avengers, which has given oil companies two weeks to abandon operations in the region, end pollution, and redistribute oil wealth.

For President Muhammadu Buhari, it difficult to find an answer for the heightened militant campaign against Chevron and other oil companies in the Niger River Delta:

“For Niger Delta, the militants are sending some conflicting messages. Some have said they are ready to drop their arms and join the rest of the nation to build it. But part of them are still sabotaging installations which is making investments in that lucrative area of Nigeria difficult because nobody will submit his riches to financial institutions, get money only to suffer huge loss.”

Buhari likely aggravated the militants by closing lucrative protection contracts on pipelines. In turn, they have effectively closed down Forcados terminal and two local refineries using sophisticated tactics.

According to EnergyGlobal.com, the Forcados deep sea pipeline attack “demonstrated a high degree of technical capacity, given that it occurred at some distance from the shoreline and required deep sea divers and sophisticated explosives”

“The Niger Delta Avengers have obviously proven themselves to be very effective in this one area of Niger Delta,” an Africa energy analyst at Stratfor named Matthew Bey told ABC, a geopolitical intelligence firm in Austin, Texas. “It seems to be a new generation of militant groups.”

The famous militant group in the region, the Movement to Emancipate the Niger River Delta (MEND), has repudiated the Avengers in a public statement saying that the group “wishes to condemn and dissociate itself from the recent activities carried out by the group known as the Niger Delta Avengers.”

“Their sudden emergence has absolutely nothing to do with the Niger Delta struggle but is rather a tool by certain elements to destabilize the current government.”

The situation in Nigeria is made volatile by the army’s work in the north of the country fighting Boko Haram.

Speaking on MEND’s response to the Avengers, Oxford University research student Akin Iwilade explains, “The top leadership of MEND benefited from the patronage that came with the amnesty. It is very logical and, frankly, expected, that they would condemn a group they obviously have little control over.”

“It is difficult to imagine that ex-militants have no hand whatsoever in this,” continued Iwilade, who has interviewed former area militants. “There are very clear similarities in the way the Niger Delta Avengers operates with what we knew of groups like MEND.”

MEND carried out a series of bombings and attacks against oil infrastructure while seeking to avoid harming people, bringing them credibility in the region as well as tremendous political power.

According to Time Magazine, the Niger River Delta is among the top 10 most polluted places on earth. An average of 240,000 barrels of oil per year is spilled in the region, largely due to corporate oil spills and pirates seeking to steal oil. Amnesty International has pointed to Chevron and Shell for refusing to clean up their mess.