LONDON (Daily Mail) - A Nigerian rebel group has announced a conditional ceasefire and agreed to hold talks with the government following months of attacks on key oil and gas facilities that have hammered the economy.
In a message posted on the Niger Delta Avengers' (NDA) website late on Saturday, the group said it would "observe a cessation of hostilities," so long as the country's ruling party stops what it called harassment of innocent civilians.
It said it would support efforts to negotiate with "the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational oil corporations and neutral international mediators."
There have been unconfirmed reports for several weeks of talks underway with Abuja, and the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has invited rebels to discussions several times.
But the NDA never publicly acknowledged that it was engaged in negotiations, or that it would support efforts by community figures from the area.
The NDA said it would honor its ceasefire pledge "unless the ruling political APC (All Progressives Congress party) continues ... to arrest, intimidate, invade and harass innocent citizens and invade especially Ijaw communities."
Otherwise it warned: "We promise to fight more for the Niger Delta, if this opportunity fails."
The Ijaw ethnic people of Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states have long dominated oil rebel groups operating in the area, although experts say militants from other communities have also set up new branches.
When he took office last year President Buhari announced he wanted to progressively wind down a scheme which had offered amnesty to former members of armed groups in the Delta, notably the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
The scheme was inherited from the previous government of Buhari's predecessor Goodluck Jonathan.
Since 2009 large sums of money have been paid in allowances to some 30,000 former fighters, while training programs were offered to those who pledged to lay down their arms.
****The Niger Delta Avengers claim to seek a fairer share of Nigeria's oil wealth for residents of the region as well as self-determination and political autonomy.