Nigeria Arrests 300 Suspected Militants

Nigerian security forces have arrested 300 suspects following reports that the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had launched a new membership recruitment drive. Army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Musa Sagir said the swoop was ordered after reports indicated that MEND had reached out to the local communities to provide new members after losing fighters in their recent “oil war” against Nigeria’s petroleum industry. Armed attacks on oil facilities in the oil-rich Niger Delta have cut Nigeria’s production by over a quarter since MEND’s emergence in 2006.[PE]