Car Bombing “With Due Respect”: The Niger Delta Insurgency and the Idea Called MEND

Abstract

This study contributes to the scholarly understanding of the insurgency in the oil-rich Delta region of Nigeria. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a loose coalition of insurgent groups responsible for many spectacular cases of kidnapping and bombing, is interrogated within the new wars theoretical prism. The article draws on interview and focus group data garnered from six categories of actors, including forty-two ex-insurgents engaged in kidnapping, pipeline vandalism, inter alia, and official e-mails from MEND's spokesperson, “Jomo Gbomo.” MEND's loose structure, fluid membership, public sympathy, the Delta creeks and vast resources, the article argues, have combined to produce an unprecedented insurgency in Nigeria. The analysis demonstrates fundamental ways in which the MEND-led oil insurgency aligns with tenets of the new war thesis. The article also provides important caveats to using this approach in the Niger Delta case study.