Nigerian militants claim responsibility for port explosion

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria: Militants said Friday they remotely detonated an explosive device placed on a docked ship, and authorities said two people were injured in the fiery incident in restive southern Nigeria.

No deaths were recorded when the vessel at a port caught fire, sending smoke high into the sky, said a Rivers State police spokeswoman, Ireju Barasua.


The region’s main militant group said in an e-mail to reporters that it had detonated a charge on the ship, which it said caused the large fire. A blast could be heard in the main oil-center city of Port Harcourt, but Barasua said police couldn’t confirm if sabotage had caused the port fire, which she said injured two people. Further details weren’t available.

Militants recently ended a unilateral cease-fire announced after the inauguration of President Umaru Yar’Adua on May 29. The truce had been intended, they said, to give the new leader time to address chronic underdevelopment and corruption behind the region’s tensions.

Yar’Adua promised that calming Nigeria’s oil region would be a national priority, but attacks are on the rise again after the arrest of a top leader of the militant group, known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

IHT