Nigeria: Niger Delta Avengers threaten secession from Nigeria
A militant group in Nigeria’s oil heartland of the Niger Delta has threatened secession from the West African country.
The move came as attacks on oil pipelines continue to deplete Nigeria’s output.
The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which carried out its first attack in February, issued a statement Thursday calling on the international community to “speak up against this ongoing terror and come to the aid of the Niger Delta.” The NDA is the latest in a series of militant groups in the Niger Delta to have complained that the benefits of the region’s vast oil resources have not been equally distributed among its citizens.
The group has also called for greater autonomy for the Niger Delta and threatened to seek secession from Nigeria, as South Sudan did from neighboring Sudan in 2011. “We want our resources back to restore the essence of human life in our region for generations to come because Nigeria has failed to do that,2 the NDA said. “The world should not wait until we go [the way of] Sudan. Enough is enough.”