MEND Nigeria-Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta-MEND-Official News Site -tracking News, Articles, Interviews and Opinions, related to MEND- from 1999 to Present
Lagos — Thirty-five people were killed yesterday in violent clashes between security personnel policing the Niger Delta and militants. The deadly exchanges took place in Bayelsa, Delta and River States.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an e-mail message it sent to Reuters news agency that it had launched a series of reprisal attacks against the men of the Nigerian Army. The group claimed 29 soldiers and six of its own members were killed in the fighting.
Leadership (Abuja)
Nigeria's main rebel group yesterday said its fighters have killed 29 Nigerian soldiers in a reprisal attack carried out in three different locations in the Niger delta.
In an email to media organizations, MEND said it carried out the attack as reprisal for "the killings of men, women and children from their so-called "warning shots" in the inland waterways to punitive expeditions on oil bearing communities."
analysis
Tragic struck in Bayelsa State after soldiers mistook four persons travelling by boat in the creek for militants and shot three of them dead.
IF only they had known that danger was lurking around, perhaps they would have shelved that ill-fated trip that has turned out to be pain in the minds of their relatives and friends. There was no premonition whatsoever to suggest that, that bright Sunday, disaster was waiting to spoil the joy of the Sese and the Ajayi families of Forupa community in Bayelsa State.
Port Harcourt — Gunmen yesterday demanded $12 million for the release of an Israeli expatriate, Ehud Avni kidnapped early this week in his home in Port Harcourt, an Israeli embassy source said yesterday.
The embassy official, who asked not to be named, said the gunmen did not give a deadline for the ransom payment.
Lagos — Some members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have condemned the frequent attack on oil facilities in the Niger Delta by militia groups.
They said these attacks have always been counter-productive for the people of the region.
Lagos — Govement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has located the whereabouts of the Israeli construction worker, Mr. Ehud Arny, who was kidnapped Tuesday night in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Spokesman for MEND, Jomo Gbomo, made the claim in a press statement sent online to our correspondent.
Leadership (Abuja)
Yenagoa — The ultimatum handed to the governors of Bayelsa and Rivers States by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta region (MEND) for an explanation on the proper account and projects on which the 13 per cent derivation fund was expended is tearing the group apart.
THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has called on construction giant, Julius Berger to return to its abandoned projects in the Niger Delta.
The company was forced to abandon its projects sites in the region including the dualisation of the ailing East-West road following the kidnapped of two of its expatriate staff by unknown commercial hostage takers in Port Harcourt , the Rivers State capital.
The Rivers State Government has begged the criminals who kidnapped an Israeli businessman Ehud Arny, Tuesday, to set him free because the man is from a holy land and therefore, "anointed, and God said touch not my anointed".
Leadership (Abuja)
analysis
Abuja — One of the problems confronting the Nigerian nation today is the Niger Delta region's agitation for the control of the mineral wealth that derives from their region.