Nigeria has started paying cash stipends to former militants again in an effort to stop attacks on oil pipelines that have lowered production and dented the country’s economics, a news report said.
Militants have damaged pipelines in hope of forcing the authorities to invest more of the proceeds of oil production back into the Niger Delta region.
Talks between President Muhammadu Buhari and Niger Delta leaders took place in November, but news of any progress had been absent until today.
“Two months of the ex-militants’ stipends were paid yesterday… . The rest of their stipends will be paid later in batches by (central bank) CBN,” Piriye Kiyaramo, an officer in the government’s Amnesty Office, was cited as saying by Reuters.
The payments cover August and September, the report said.
Each former militant is entitled $206.68 a month plus job training, Reuters reported.