Nigeria’s release of rebel leader Henry Okah and his movement’s announcement of a 60-day cease- fire may not be enough to end the insurgency that has cut crude supply from Africa’s top oil exporter by a fifth.
President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration dropped charges of treason and gun-running against Okah, 44, releasing him on July 13 from more than a year in jail, as part of an amnesty for rebels announced last month.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, responded by calling a temporary cease-fire and saying it will seek talks with the government. Okah himself wasn’t sure he’ll be able to stop the violence.
“I’ll have to go into the creeks and meet the commanders,” Okah said in a telephone interview from the Nigerian capital Abuja yesterday. “I’ve been away for 23 months and it’s only after I have had time to talk to those involved that I can say anything.”
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