Nigerian armed group attacks oil pipeline

Ending two-month truce:

NIGERIA: Nigeria's main rebel group Saturday said it attacked an oil pipeline operated by Shell and Chevron, ending a two-month truce, and accused the government of using the president's ill-health to stall peace talks.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed the attack in an e-mail statement, like its previous strikes, and located the pipeline in Abonemma, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Port Harcourt, the country's oil hub.

The "warning strike (was) carried out by five boats involving thirty five ... fighters armed with assault rifles, rocket launchers and heavy calibre machine guns ... on a major Shell/Chevron crude pipeline in southern Rivers State," MEND said.

A Shell official said the company was not aware of any attack on its facility.

Earlier a spokesman had told AFP "we are still investigating the report".

MEND had on October 25 announced an indefinite ceasefire in response to a government amnesty programme for militants in the restive oil region to lay down their arms.

The group also named a team to negotiate with the government on how to end the unrest. MEND said it would now review the ceasefire within 30 days, blaming the government for suspending ongoing peace talks because of the ill-health of President Umaru Yar'Adua, hospitalised since November 23 in Saudi Arabia.

It is not yet clear when Yar'Adua - said to be suffering from acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane covering the heart - will return to Nigeria and official information on his health has been limited. His latest trip was the third to the Saudi Arabian port city in four months, all believed to have involved hospital visits.

Lagos, Sunday,AFP