Explosions hit amnesty talks in Nigeria's oil delta

By Segun Owen

WARRI Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian militants detonated two car bombs outside a government building in the southern oil city of Warri on Monday where talks were being held about implementing an amnesty programme.

The attacks, claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) militant group, are a major setback for Acting President Goodluck Jonathan as his government also tries to calm ethnic tensions in the centre of the country.

Jonathan has made reviving an amnesty programme and restoring peace in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, a top priority since he took over as acting leader in the absence of the nation's sick president.

MEND said the explosions were meant to "announce our continued presence" and warned of renewed attacks against the oil industry in the coming days, threatening firms such as French energy giant Total which have so far largely avoided significant strikes on their infrastructure.

"It is quite a statement," said Antony Goldman, a Nigeria expert and head of London-based PM Consulting.

"Apparently with timed devices, they have sabotaged not just some lonely, impossible-to-guard pipeline, but an official government building on a relatively high-profile occasion."

The first vehicle exploded on an expressway several hundred metres from Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan's compound, the second at the gates of the building. Witnesses said around six passers-by were wounded. There were no reports of deaths.

Several hundred police officers and soldiers in armoured vehicles cordoned off Government House as cars burned on the expressway outside. Security was also tightened around the nearby offices of U.S. energy giant Chevron.