Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari needs to address grievances in the Delta region where militants have been blowing up oil pipelines in a conflict that has become a “major concern”, a senior British official said on Saturday.
The swamps of the southern Delta have been hit by a series of attacks on pipelines and other oil and gas facilities that have reduced Nigeria’s output by 300,000 barrels a day, closed a major export port and two refineries.
Crude sales from the Delta account for 70 percent of national income in Africa’s biggest economy but residents, some of whom sympathise with the militants, have long complained of poverty.
“It’s obviously a major concern,” Hammond told reporters on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Abuja when asked about the Delta situation.
“The idea that your answer is by moving big chunks of the Nigerian army to the Delta simply doesn’t work,” he said, adding that the army did not have the capacity while fighting Boko Haram jihadists in the north. “It won’t deal with the underlying issues.”
“Buhari has got to show as a president from the north that he is not ignoring the Delta, that he is engaging with the challenges in the Delta,” Hammond said.
Buhari is a Muslim from the north who has not visited the Christian Delta since taking office a year ago, something highlighted by a militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed a string of attacks on pipelines.
The group has warned oil firms to leave the region within two weeks and says it is fighting for independence for the Delta. It has said it wanted a greater share of oil revenues and an end to oil pollution, reports Reuters.
The attacks have driven Nigerian oil output to near a 22-year low and, if the violence escalates into another insurgency, it could cripple output in a country facing a growing economic crisis.
Buhari, who has not commented about not visiting the Delta, has extended a multi-million dollar amnesty signed with militants in 2009 but upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts. He also cut the amnesty budget by around 70 percent, which partly funds training for unemployed.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram jihadists are likely to step up cooperation with Islamic State should the latter extremist group gain a stronger foothold in Libya, a senior British official said on Saturday.
Boko Haram, which has been waging a seven-year insurgency in northern Nigeria, last year pledged loyalty to Islamic State.
Little is known about the extent of cooperation. But Western officials worry that Islamic State’s growing presence in North Africa and ties with Boko Haram could herald a push south into the Sahel region and create a springboard for wider attacks.
Islamic State first seized parts of Syria and Iraq but later built up a foothold in Libya, exploiting a security vacuum.
“If we see Daesh establish a stronger presence in Libya, that feels much more to people here like a direct communications route, that is likely to step up the practical collaboration between the two groups,” British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said at a security conference in Nigeria.
He was referring to a derogatory name of Islamic State.
On Friday, a senior U.S. official said there were signs of Boko Haram fighters going to Libya from Nigeria, crossing via porous Sub-Saharan borders.
“The intent is clearly there, the evidence of hard collaboration is still pretty sketchy,” Hammond said about the cooperation between the two groups.
