Nigeria: An Unprecedented MEND Attack in Lagos

Late in the evening of July 12, the Nigerian militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked an oil services jetty in Lagos. This unprecedented attack by MEND in Nigeria's commercial capital, outside the militant group's normal area of operations in the Niger Delta, is likely part of a ruling People's Democratic Party strategy to take over the opposition-controlled Lagos state government in elections slated for 2011.