Nigeria/Insurgency: Defense minister defends amnesty process

Nigerian defence minister Godwin Abbe held on Wednesday media briefing on the amnesty programme initiated with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) rebels President Umaru Yar’Adua. Denying that the process programme was failing, he claimed that several stages would be needed to make it “fully mature”.

The amnesty program was launched in June 2009 and offered the rebels who surrender their weapons certain sum of money per month, training and job opportunities. A number of gunmen effectively surrendered, but President Umaru Yar'Adua’s long absence for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia has however raised tensions between the government and ex-rebels. The MEND has indeed recently carried out a series of warning strikes against oil facilities in the Niger Delta, highlighting the growing distrust with the government.