As a result of the recent attacks on oil facilities in the Niger
Delta region, the United Kingdom has warned Nigeria’s President Muhammadu
Buhari on the needed to the deal with the root causes because a military
confrontation could end in “disaster”.
While speaking at the regional security conference in Abuja,
the British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond, said crude sales from the Delta
account for 70 percent of national income in Africa’s biggest economy but
residents, some of whom sympathise with the militants, have long complained of
poverty. “It’s obviously a major concern.”
“The idea that your answer is by moving big chunks of the
Nigerian army to the Delta simply doesn’t work,” he said, adding that the army
did not have the capacity while fighting Boko Haram jihadists in the north. “It
won’t deal with the underlying issues.” “Buhari has got to show as a president
from the north that he is not ignoring the Delta, that he is engaging with the
challenges in the Delta,” Hammond said.
Buhari is a Muslim from the north who has not visited the
Christian Delta since taking office a year ago, something highlighted by a
militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed a string of attacks
on pipelines.
The group has warned oil firms to leave the region within
two weeks and says it is fighting for independence for the Delta. It has said
it wanted a greater share of oil revenues and an end to oil pollution.
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