next Image 1 of 2

prev Image 2 of 2

Residents say militants have blown up strategic gas and crude pipelines belonging to Shell and Agip in the third attack in three days in an increasingly fierce campaign that has chopped Nigeria's oil production in half.

Community leader Eke-Spiff Erempagamo confirmed the militants' report on social media that they had dynamited the trunkline linking Shell's Bonny terminal to Agip's Brass export terminal early Saturday.

Nigeria's government said production had fallen from a projected 2.2 million barrels a day to 1.4 million before the latest attacks.

Community leaders and peaceful activists this week sided with the militants, saying the people of Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta share their demands for a greater share of the country's oil wealth. Oil pollution has destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers and fishermen.