NIGERIA: IT’S GETTING A LOT WORSE: “MEND is not the only armed militia to come out of the 20 million people living in the Niger River Delta. But it is the most militant, determined and effective. After only a year, MEND has cut nearly a third of the countrys oil production. That’s a big deal, and the rest of Nigeria is paying attention. . . . It’s an ugly situation, and not likely to turn out well. This is especially true because there are now splinter groups in MEND, largely the result of arguments over how ransom money should be split up. While attacking oil facilities gets the most attention from the government, MEND gets most of its revenue from ransoms, followed closely by selling stolen oil and various criminal scams.”

Read the whole thing, and you’ll see some similarities to the current situation in Iraq. Lots of oil money, plus weak government, produces this sort of thing.