MTN has dismissed reports that its staff members in Nigeria
were killed during attacks on its telecommunications infrastructure. No MTN staff
was killed. We are at a loss as to the source of this highly erroneous
information," spokesman Rich Mkhondo said on Tuesday. He said damage to
telecommunications facilities was confined to certain parts of northern
Nigeria, and that customers only in those parts might have experienced service
disruptions.
MTN had received several enquiries about MTN staff
supposedly killed. Last week, a radical Islamist sect which has attacked
mosques, churches, schools and government buildings at will in Nigeria, damaged
more than 30 towers operated by all major providers in the country.
While no one claimed responsibility for the attacks, the
Islamist sect known as Boko Haram threatened mobile phone companies six months
ago, warning that they would be targeted for co-operating with the government
to flush out its members.
MTN said its customers in Nigeria could experience network
failure as a result of the attacks. Mkhondo said
MTN Nigeria had the full co-operation of the country's security and
intelligence agencies, and a joint task force in various northern states was
providing security for all telecommunications infrastructure until further
notice. Nigeria has 25.1 percent of MTN's 171
million subscribers globally.
Boko Harem (which means "Western
education is sinful") is
a militant Islamist movement which strongly opposes man-made laws and modern
science.
The Citizen South Africa