General vows to ‘break will’ of oil rebels

A Nigerian general has pledged to “break the will” of armed groups responsible for a week-long campaign of sabotage against the oil industry in the Niger Delta by launching more raids on their hideouts.

The delta witnessed the most intense series of attacks against the oil industry since early 2006 last week when militants strafed army posts and blew up pipelines in retaliation for a raid the military conducted on one of their camps on September 13.

The raid – launched using gunboats and helicopters – appeared to signal a more robust approach by the army in Rivers State, one of the main oil- and gas-producing states in Nigeria, raising fears of a wider conflagration in the region.

But Sarkin-Yaki Bello, a brigadier-general who commands military forces in Rivers, was confident his plans to use growing levels of manpower and mobility to broaden his campaign would succeed in reducing the militants’ ability to strike back.

Financial Times