ABUJA, Nigeria, June 7 (Reuters) -
Nigeria will scale down a military campaign in the oil-producing Niger Delta
and talk to the Niger Delta Avengers militant group which has claimed a string
of attacks there that sharply cut crude output, officials said.
But the militant group said in a
statement, without mentioning the government initiative, its mandate was
"to liberate the Niger Delta people."
The government has also decided that
the military presence in the region, which had been increased in the last few
weeks, should be scaled down, a statement issued by the vice president's office
said on Tuesday.
The southern Delta swamps, where many
complain of poverty and oil spills, have been hit by militant attacks on oil
and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year low, and
helped push oil prices to 2016 highs on Tuesday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had
appointed a team led by the national security adviser "to begin the
process of a very intensive dialogue with those caught in the middle of
this," Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said late on Monday.
"I want to call on the militants
to sheath their weapons and embrace dialogue with government," he said.
"We are making contacts with everybody who is involved, the ones that we
can identify, through them, the ones that we can't identify so that there is a
lot more inclusiveness in this dialogue."
"Probably we will suspend the
operations of the military in the region for a week or two for individuals in
the creeks to converge for the dialogue," he said.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who had
been expected to travel to London to meet investors on Tuesday, instead met
Niger Delta state governors and military chiefs to discuss ways to end the
militancy.
A statement from Osinbajo's office
said it had been decided at the meeting that the military presence in the
region should be "de-escalated," although forces would be kept to
provide security for the talks.
Adding to the problems of authorities
trying to stem the violence, a group in the southeast calling for secession
declared support for the Avengers.
"We support the Niger Delta
Avengers," said Uche Madu, a spokesman for the Movement for the
Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) which wants secession
for the region which fought a civil war from 1967-70.
A former militant group, the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which laid down arms in 2009 under a
government amnesty, accused the army of a "disproportionate use of
force."
MEND, which was one of the largest
militant groups, also said the Delta Avengers had attracted some of its former
fighters. So far it has been unclear who is behind the Avengers.
There was no immediate direct response
from the Avengers on the dialogue initiative. On its Twitter account it only
issued a statement framing MEND leaders as criminals.
"Our struggle is focussed on the
liberation of the People of Niger Delta from decades of divisive rule and
exclusion," it said.
Kachikwu also said Nigeria's oil
output was between 1.5 million and 1.6 million barrels a day, down from 2.2
million barrels at the start of the year.
"Over the last two months, we
have probably lost about 600,000 barrels from various attacks of militants in
the area," he said. (Reporting by Felix Onuah, Ulf Laessing, Camillus Eboh
and Tife Owolabi, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu and Alexis Akwagyiram; Writing by Ulf
Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by William Hardy, Adrian Croft and
Chris Reese)
REUTERS
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