IN THE NIGER DELTA, Nigeria, Feb. 24 — They have, by all appearances, just a handful of boats, some machine guns and grenade launchers and, perhaps equally important, an e-mail address.

But with just those tools the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has managed to shut down nearly a fifth of this nation’s vast oil production, briefly push global crude oil prices up more than $1.50 a barrel and throw Nigeria’s government into crisis over the group’s demand that the oil-rich but squalid region be given a greater share of the wealth it creates.

“They have marginalized us for many years now!” shouted a machine-gun-wielding member of the militant group, his face covered in black cloth. “We are taking the bull by the horns now. Niger Delta is ready.”
nytimes.com

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 9:17 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.