Reuters: “More naval patrols in Nigeria’s southern delta region have failed to persuade oil company Royal Dutch Shell to return to its abandoned oilfields as militants continue to clash sporadically with troops [..] The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has waged a four-month campaign of sabotage and kidnapping against the oil industry in the world’s eighth largest exporter, cutting supplies by up to a quarter at one point. [..] Militants, often armed and funded with the proceeds of crude oil theft, roam the mangrove-lined waterways of the vast delta in speedboats.”
About a quarter of Nigeria‘s oil output is offline due to sabotage. That’s over half a million barrels of oil per day removed from the world oil market due to attacks in Nigeria alone, helping drive prices further up, which means more money to terrorists in Nigeria and around the world.
The “Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta” took responsibility for this particular string of attacks, one of their demands being for the Nigerian government to release from custody the ringleader of the group that started attacking (and not just looting) the oil infrastructure in Nigeria Al-Haji Mujahid Dokubo Asari.