Nigerian Rebels to Widen Conflict, Target Agip
Nigerian rebels battling troops in Africa’s top oil exporter declared on Sunday they would extend their uprising across the whole of the country’s oil-producing southern delta. A rebel leader told Reuters the conflict, currently focused in the eastern part of the delta, was to force political reforms or gain sovereignty for the impoverished region, adding that his militia would attack Italian oil installations and personnel. Mujahid Dokubo-Asari accused the Italian oil company Agip, a unit of ENI, of lending helicopters to the military to spy on rebel positions. The company denied it. Full Story