YENAGOA, Nigeria |
(Reuters) - Nigerian militants have ambushed a police boat in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, killing 12 police officers, authorities said on Sunday.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main delta militant group before a 2009 amnesty, claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, staged shortly after it had threatened to resume its campaign of violence.
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However, another of the armed groups roaming Africa's top oil producer said it had carried out the ambush near the village of Azuzama, which a further 38 police officers survived.
MEND, whose activities at their peak cut oil production in Nigeria by around half before the amnesty, threatened to restart attacks this week in retaliation for the jailing of its leader Henry Okah by a South African court.
MEND said it had attacked the boat heading to a funeral in Bayelsa state because government forces had refused to take its threat seriously.
"For dismissing (our statement) ... as an 'empty threat', heavily armed fighters from ... MEND intercepted and engaged government security forces in a fierce gunfight at Azuzama," said an emailed statement signed by Jomo Gbomo, a pseudonym the group uses.
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