Off the wire
• Senior CPC official meets Indian guest  • Vietnam targets all rural residents to get clean water by 2020  • Iraqi forces extend grip in IS stronghold in Fallujah  • Hungarian FM says Brexit to put damper on EU enlargement  • Financial crimes, waste in public sector cost Italy 2.3 bln euros in 2016: report  • China, Serbia vow to boost military cooperation  • Xinhua Insight: Dog meat festival cooling down under criticism  • Feature: Experience the beauty of Nyonya Needlework in Singapore  • Drought continues to put pressure on major sectors in Namibia: experts  • 3rd LD Writethru: Chinese president starts Uzbekistan visit in historical city Bukhara  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Nigerian gov't enters ceasefire agreement with Niger Delta militants

Xinhua, June 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Nigerian government has entered a 30-day ceasefire agreement with militants responsible for attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta region of the country, local media reported on Tuesday, citing local sources privy to the truce.

In the temporary ceasefire agreement reached last week, according to The Guardian Newspaper, the Niger Delta Avengers agitated for a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. Crude oil sales make up about 70 percent of national income and the vast majority of that oil comes from the southern swampland.

"It was very difficult getting the Niger Delta Avengers to the negotiating table but we eventually did through a proxy channel and achieved the truce," an unnamed source said.

Although local officials are keeping mum on the agreement, the local media said the militants had also listed the opening of a maritime university situated in the region as one of the conditions for ending its attacks on oil and gas facilities.

Local media said during negotiation, Nigeria's oil minister, Ibe Kachikwu had led a team of government officials to plead with the militants to give President Muhammadu Buhari and his cabinet enough time to come up with a comprehensive Niger Delta plan that would address most of their demands.

"You would have noticed that there have been no bombings of oil assets in recent days. This is the fall out of the 30 days of quiet reached with the minister and his team," another source told the local ThisDay Newspaper.

Last week the Niger Delta Avengers, through its spokesperson, Mudoch Agbinibo, said they would negotiate with the government if independent foreign mediators were involved.

To pave way for proper negotiation with the militant group, the Nigerian government earlier ordered a ceasefire by troops, withdrew fighter jets and battleships that had been deployed in the region to flush out the economic saboteurs.

While carrying out its vicious attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta, the militant group had forced major oil firms operating in the West African country to either declare force majeure or cut down production of crude oil in Nigeria, impacting negatively on power supply and the country's oil earnings. Endit