LAGOS, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s main militant group declared a unilateral cease-fire Sunday, saying elders in the restive southern region had asked the fighters to allow peace efforts to go ahead.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement that it would halt attacks starting at midnight Tuesday.
The group, which has been behind two years of crippling attacks on Nigeria’s oil infrastructure, said it was heeding calls by elders in the Niger Delta. Regional traditional chiefs wield great influence in Nigeria.
The two-line statement, sent from an e-mail address used many times in the past by MEND, said, “The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) will be observing a unilateral ceasefire in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria until further notice.
“We are respecting an appeal by the Niger Delta elders to give peace and dialogue another chance.” The militants had said they were boycotting a government peace summit scheduled for July in the capital, Abuja, and it was unclear Sunday if the group was reconsidering its boycott. The group made no mention of which elders had prevailed on them to halt attacks.
MEND declared a cease-fire in 2007 after President Umaru Yar’Adua’s May 29 inauguration, saying they were willing to join a peace process.
But they relaunched their campaign of pipeline bombings and other oil-industry attacks after one of their leaders, Henry Okah, was arrested on arms dealing charges in September in Angola.
The group has made the man’s release one of their main objectives, along with gaining more federal government-held oil resources for the southern Niger Delta, which is deeply poor despite the great natural bounty.
MEND launched one of its most daring raids to date last week, sending several boatloads of fighters some 80 miles from Nigeria’s southern shores to attack an offshore oil installation. The group inflicted little damage, it showed that virtually none of the oil infrastructure in Africa’s biggest producer was safe from assault.
The group’s attacks have sliced about one quarter from Nigeria’s normal oil daily oil output, helping buoy crude prices in international markets.
