The government of the southern Nigerian Rivers State yesterday welcomed peace talks between the Abuja authorities and the leader of a separatist movement fighting for the control of the country's oil wealth.
"It is a positive development. It will go a long way to further reduce tensions in the Niger Delta," government spokesman Emmanuel Okah told reporters.
PHOTO: EPA
Asked if he was optimistic a settlement could be reached to avert a new rebel offensive planned for today, rebel leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari said: "The president has set no preconditions for the talks."
"We are due to meet today at 10am. We told them we are leaving today after the talks."
Mujahid Abubakar Dokubo Asari, leader of Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) which has issued threats against foreign oil installations and workers, began a meeting with the Nigerian government in Abuja on Wednesday.
Asari claimed he met President Olusegun Obasanjo for two hours on Wednesday and another round of talks was scheduled for late in the evening.
Nigeria's Information Minister confirmed that talks were going on, but did not say if the rebel leader met Obasanjo personally.
Rivers government spokesman Okah told reporters Asari had "tested the will of Nigerian federal government by attempting to acquire part of its territory for illegal bunkering," a term used for the stealing of crude oil from pipelines and selling it off to buy arms and ammunition.
"We, in Rivers State, have no problems with the development. If Nigeria has chosen to talk with him, so be it," he said.
Asari leads a rebel group which says it is fighting for the rights of the impoverished ethnic Ijaw in the Niger Delta region, the center of the west African country's substantial oil industry.
The gang has been operating in Port Harcourt and its surrounding creeks, carrying out illegal bunkering to finance its armed struggle.
Some 500 people have died in gang violence in the past month in Port Harcourt, the hub of Nigeria's oil-rich Niger delta region, according to Amnesty International, but the government said only 13 were killed.
The government deployed troops to the region two weeks ago following fighting between two armed gangs for control of the area's illegal crude oil trafficking and stealing.
Asari on Monday asked multinational oil firms to leave their bases in the Niger Delta, but the military have declared a round-the-clock offensive to dislodge the gang from the region.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS