Nigeria Military Kills Five Gunmen In Oil Delta

Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa said the `chance encounter resulted in the killing of five militants`.

Nigerian soldiers killed five gunmen after exchanging fire in the waterways of the oil-producing Niger Delta, a military spokesman said on Friday.

Nigerian navy vessels encountered the gunmen in three speedboats early on Thursday while on patrol in the Cawthorne Channel, an area in Rivers state that is a known hotbed for violence due to its close proximity to key oil facilities.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the military taskforce in the Niger Delta, said the "chance encounter resulted in the killing of five militants".

There were no military casualties, he added.

The fighting is the second major incident in the heart of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry since the region's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), announced a ceasefire last month.

Insecurity in the Niger Delta has shut down around a fifth of Nigeria's oil production since early 2006.

Last week, gunmen in speedboats attacked navy vessels guarding the main crude oil and liquefied natural gas export terminals on Bonny Island.

Soldiers repelled the attack and killed several of the gunmen after two of their boats were sunk, the military said.