The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a militant group in the oil-rich region, said it held preliminary talks with Nigeria’s government as insurgencies ravage crude output in Africa’s largest economy.
The negotiations “will seek to find solutions to the short, medium and long-term future of the Niger Delta region,” the group’s spokesman Jomo Gbomo said Sunday in an e-mailed statement. The presidency said July 21 that it’s talking to militants in the oil-rich delta region.
Another militia group, Niger Delta Avengers, burst onto Nigeria’s political scene near the oil hub of Warri in February, shattering a seven-year peace with a campaign of pipeline sabotage that’s ravaged crude output and starved a government already reeling from depressed prices of even more revenue. The Avengers say they want a greater share of the wealth that oil companies extract from their native lands to be spent on local schools, hospitals and other essential services.
