20091219
rfi.fr

Nigeria's main armed rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), has claimed responsibility for an attack on a pipeline on Saturday, ending a two-month truce with the government.

The "warning strike [was] carried out by five boats involving 35 ... fighters armed with assault rifles, rocket-launchers and heavy

calibre machine guns ... at about 0200Hrs today... on a major Shell/Chevron crude pipeline in southern Rivers State," a Mend email said.

Shell did not immediately comment on the claim.

The rebels blamed the government for suspending peace talks because of the ill health of President Umaru Yar'Adua.

He has been hospitalised in Saudi Arabia since 23 November and is said to be suffering from acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane covering the heart.

This week the government announced the creation of five committees to address oil, environmental and disarmament issues following the amnesty process in the Niger Delta. But talks have stalled since Yar'Adua's hospitalisation.

"While the Nigerian government has conveniently tied the advancement of talks on the demands of this group to a sick President, it has not tied the repair of pipelines, exploitation of oil and gas as well as the deployment and retooling of troops in the region to the President's ill health," the Mend statement said.

"While wishing the President a speedy recovery, a situation where the future of the Niger Delta is tied to the health and well being of one man is unacceptable,"

The rebels say they will review the ceasefire within 30 days.

Correspondent Ben Shemang says the Mend has struck just as local people thought that peace had returned.