Shell trying to plug second Nigeria leak
ABUJA, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s
operation in Nigeria is working to plug a leak caused by
sabotage that shut its 70,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Nembe Creek
pipeline, the company said in a statement emailed to Reuters on
Wednesday.
The pipeline in the swampy creeks of the Niger Delta was
shut down on December 24 but went unreported, eclipsed by a much
bigger leak at Shell’s offshore Bongo facility.
Nigeria’s Jonathan declares state of emergency
ABUJA (Reuters) – President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Saturday in parts of Nigeria plagued by a violent Islamist insurgency, and ordered shut the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast.
Coming nearly a week after radical sect Boko Haram set off a series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57, Jonathan told state television the measures would aim to restore security in troubled parts of Nigeria’s north.
Nigeria’s Jonathan vows to “crush terrorists”
ABUJA (Reuters) – President Goodluck Jonathan vowed on Saturday to “crush the terrorists” who set off a series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day, while he visited a church in which one bomb killed at least 37 people.
The blasts last Sunday, including three aimed at churches, raised fears that Boko Haram, a movement styled on the Taliban whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” is trying to ignite sectarian strife in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer.
Nigeria might talk to Boko Haram via “back channels”
ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian security services are considering making contact with moderate members of shadowy Islamist sect Boko Haram via “back channels,” even though explicit talks are officially ruled out, the national security adviser said on Friday.
Speaking a day after emergency meetings with Goodluck Jonathan and top security officials in response to a spate of deadly Christmas Day bombings by the sect, National Security Adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi told Reuters officials were looking at broadening efforts beyond pure security measures — including addressing northern economic grievances.
Insight: Islamist attacks strain Nigeria’s north-south divide
(A sign is seen at a police check point near the main market following recent violent clashes in Nigeria's central city of Jos February 15, 2011. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde)
The line dividing Christians from Muslims that runs along a rocky valley in the central Nigerian town of Jos may not be visible to the eye, but it burns in the minds of local people. The mosque lies barely 200 meters (yards) from the main church in the Congo-Russia neighborhood, a huddle of tin-roofed homes winding up a hill, and on its sandy pavements women in Muslim headscarves politely greet men wearing shiny crucifixes.
Nigerian Christians warn of religious war after two dozen die in Christmas bombing
(A car burns at the scene of a bomb explosion at St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla, Suleja, just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja, December 25, 2011. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde)
Northern Nigerian Christians said on Tuesday they feared that a spate of Chrtistmas Day bombings by Islamist militants that killed over two dozen people could lead to a religious war in Africa’s most populous country. The warning was made in a statement by the northern branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), an umbrella organization comprising various denominations including Catholics, Protestant and Pentecostal churches.
Northern Nigerian Christians warn of religious war
ABUJA (Reuters) – Northern Nigerian Christians said on Tuesday they feared that a spate of Chrtistmas Day bombings by Islamist militants that killed over two dozen people could lead to a religious war in Africa’s most populous country.
The warning was made in a statement by the northern branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), an umbrella organization comprising various denominations including Catholics, Protestant and Pentecostal churches.
Boko Haram bombings strike at Nigeria’s faultlines
LAGOS (Reuters) – Christmas Day bomb attacks against churches in Nigeria by Islamist militant group Boko Haram targeted the country’s religious and ethnic faultlines in an apparently escalating campaign to fracture the nation’s stability.
The shadowy group from Nigeria’s Muslim north, blamed for dozens of bombings and shootings in recent years, said it was responsible for a string of blasts, three of them in churches, including one that killed at least 27 people at a packed Christmas service on the outskirts of the capital Abuja.
Analysis: Boko Haram bombings strike at Nigeria’s faultlines
LAGOS (Reuters) – Christmas Day bomb attacks against churches in Nigeria by Islamist militant group Boko Haram targeted the country’s religious and ethnic faultlines in an apparently escalating campaign to fracture the nation’s stability.
The shadowy group from Nigeria’s Muslim north, blamed for dozens of bombings and shootings in recent years, said it was responsible for a string of blasts, three of them in churches, including one that killed at least 27 people at a packed Christmas service on the outskirts of the capital Abuja.
Nigeria coast braces for biggest oil spill in 13 yrs
LAGOS/LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) – Nigerian authorities
were putting emergency measures in place on Thursday to prevent
an oil spill from a Royal Dutch Shell facility, the
biggest leak in Nigeria for more than 13 years, washing up on
its densely populated coast.
Tuesday’s spill, which Shell said happened while a tanker
was loading oil, has led to the complete shutdown of the
company’s 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) Bonga facility, about 120
kilometres off the coast of the West African nation.
-
Follow Tim
