Nigerian militants vow to halt attacks

LAGOS, Nigeria – The main militant group responsible for attacks on foreign oil installations in Nigeria’s lawless south announced a one-month cease-fire Saturday, giving the new president a chance to resolve the crisis that has helped cause global crude prices to spike.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta did not offer to stop kidnapping foreign oil workers, but it released six hostages who had been seized May 1


Hours earlier, however, gunmen wearing security force garb abducted four other foreign oil workers from their compound in the southern Niger Delta region’s main city without firing a shot.

The group launched its campaign of kidnappings and oil-installation bombings in late 2005, seeking to force the government to give its impoverished region a greater share of oil funds.

AP