Nigeria separatists have hijacked a merchant ship
and threatened to blow it up with its foreign crew if
authorities do not release a detained leader agitating
for a breakaway state of Biafra, military officers said
Tuesday.
Maj. Gen. Rabe Abubakar, the Defense Ministry
spokesman, confirmed the hijacking occurred on
Friday and called it “an act of sabotage.” He did not
tell reporters the name of the ship.
Abubakar spoke on Monday. Other officers on
Tuesday told The Associated Press that the navy is in
pursuit of the captured vessel. The officers, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is
sensitive, said the hijackers have given the
government 31 days to free Kanu or say they will
blow up the ship along with its crew.
The ultimatum was given at the weekend by a militant
identified by the nom de guerre of General Ben. Ben
is not a separatist but “some Niger Delta militants
have shown interest in working with us,” said Uchena
Madu, a leader of the Movement for the Actualization
of a Sovereign State of Biafra.
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The hijacking indicates the separatists could be
working with some Niger Delta oil militants blamed
for recent bombings of oil pipelines in the oil-rich
south, escalating conflict in a country already
burdened by Boko Haram’s deadly Islamic uprising in
the northeast and violent ethno-religious
confrontations between farmers and herders in
central Nigeria. Africa’s biggest economy and oil
producer also is battered by slashed petroleum
prices.
Secret police on Oct. 17 detained Nnamdi Kanu,
director of banned Radio Biafra, and since have
accused him of terrorism, sparking protests in which
police are accused of killing several demonstrators.
Nigeria’s Igbo people prosecuted a civil war to create
a separate state of Biafra in the southeast that killed
a million people in the 1960s. Many Igbos charge
they still suffer discrimination.
and threatened to blow it up with its foreign crew if
authorities do not release a detained leader agitating
for a breakaway state of Biafra, military officers said
Tuesday.
Maj. Gen. Rabe Abubakar, the Defense Ministry
spokesman, confirmed the hijacking occurred on
Friday and called it “an act of sabotage.” He did not
tell reporters the name of the ship.
Abubakar spoke on Monday. Other officers on
Tuesday told The Associated Press that the navy is in
pursuit of the captured vessel. The officers, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is
sensitive, said the hijackers have given the
government 31 days to free Kanu or say they will
blow up the ship along with its crew.
The ultimatum was given at the weekend by a militant
identified by the nom de guerre of General Ben. Ben
is not a separatist but “some Niger Delta militants
have shown interest in working with us,” said Uchena
Madu, a leader of the Movement for the Actualization
of a Sovereign State of Biafra.
Advertisement
The hijacking indicates the separatists could be
working with some Niger Delta oil militants blamed
for recent bombings of oil pipelines in the oil-rich
south, escalating conflict in a country already
burdened by Boko Haram’s deadly Islamic uprising in
the northeast and violent ethno-religious
confrontations between farmers and herders in
central Nigeria. Africa’s biggest economy and oil
producer also is battered by slashed petroleum
prices.
Secret police on Oct. 17 detained Nnamdi Kanu,
director of banned Radio Biafra, and since have
accused him of terrorism, sparking protests in which
police are accused of killing several demonstrators.
Nigeria’s Igbo people prosecuted a civil war to create
a separate state of Biafra in the southeast that killed
a million people in the 1960s. Many Igbos charge
they still suffer discrimination.
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