BRIEFS

NIGERIAN MILITANTS PLAN REPRISAL ATTACK AGAINST AGIP

Ijaw militants in the Niger Delta have threatened a new attack against Eni subsidiary Agip in response to a recent deadly confrontation at the Ogbainbiri flow station in Bayelsa state. The confrontation began on June 17, when armed Ijaw youth raided the flow station and held hostage 16 Nigerian oil workers and 11 soldiers who were protecting the facility (al-Jazeera, June 21). The militants claimed that their operation was in response to a June 12 incident, in which soldiers guarding the Ogbainbiri facility killed eight people in a boat. As a result of the June 17 confrontation, Agip was forced to decrease its oil output by 37,000 barrels per day and declare force majeure on exports from its Brass terminal (al-Jazeera, June 21). On June 21, the Nigerian military stormed the facility, killing 12 of the militants and freeing a number of hostages. In response, the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), a clearing house for various Ijaw militant groups in the delta, has now threatened to launch a reprisal attack against Agip in Ogbainbiri (This Day [Lagos], June 24). The JRC stated that “Nigerian Agip Oil Company will be visited by the same number of casualties, pain and misfortune” (Nigerian Tribune, June 24).

AQIM ATTEMPTS ATTACK ON ALGERIAN GAS PIPELINE

A new attempted attack in Algeria demonstrated Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s (AQIM), formerly known as the GSPC, interest in attacking the country’s energy facilities. According to the June 24 issue of the Algiers publication Liberte, at 7:30 PM on June 22 a group of AQIM fighters attacked three security agents who were guarding a major gas pipeline between the community of Draa El-Mizan and the Aomar train station. During the attack, two security agents were killed, and the third was critically injured. The Algerian army responded to the attack quickly and prevented the group from blowing up the pipeline. Analysts are concerned that AQIM will begin to increase their operations against Algeria’s oil and gas sectors. Nevertheless, Algeria’s oil and gas facilities are less vulnerable to attacks because the key energy areas are in the south of the country, far from population centers (Terrorism Monitor, June 21).