Nigeria, US to hold joint military training in oil-rich Niger Delta

The Nigerian military and its US counterpart are to hold a joint training in the African giant's oil producing Niger Delta region, Nigerian Chief of Defense Staff Alexander Ogomudia said Thursday.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and the fifth largest oil supplier to the United States but its oil-producing Niger Delta region is gripped by frequent violence, which claims about 1,000 lives a year, threatening oil operations there.

According to a statement issued by the Nigerian Defense Ministry, Ogomudia made the announcement when Robert Foglesong, commander of the US Air Forces in Europe, visited him at the defense headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

Foglesong's visit came only a month after Charles Wald, deputy commander of the US Focrces in Europe, toured the west African country and said his country was willing to cooperate with Nigeriain monitoring the waters of the Gulf of Guinea that holds as much as 10 percent of the world's oil reserves.

Thursday's statement also quoted Ogomudia as saying that the joint training would be held in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar, the headquarters of the eastern command of the Nigerian Navy in charge of the Niger Delta region.

Ogomudia solicited the sharing and exchange of intelligence between the two countries, saying that with the sharing of intelligence the two countries could jointly act with a bid to surmounting the spate of international terrorism and violence if enough funds was made available.

"We believe that we can cope with the situation but we still need assistance from the United States," he said in the statement.

Source: Xinhua