Nigeria has resumed amnesty payments to former militants in the oil-rich Niger River delta to calm down pipeline attacks that cut crude production from the West African nation to nearly a three-decade low.

A militant crisis in Africa’s largest oil producer, after President Muhammadu Buhari failed to renew amnesty payment to Niger Delta militants in February, has forces oil companies to cut crude supply to the international markets in recent months.

To help resume normal production levels, of 2.5 million barrels per day, the Nigerian government has now agreed to continue making cash payments to the militants to curb new attacks.

“We expect the amnesty to be paid tonight (Aug. 2) to 30,000 youths involved in the amnesty programme. The Central Bank has released the money,” the amnesty programme’s spokesman Piriye Kiyaramo told BBC News.

In an agreement made in 2009, the Nigerian government was to extend amnesty to the militants and provide monthly cash payments in exchange for co-operation and peace in the region.

Under the amnesty deal, each militant is entitled to 65,000 naira ($203) a month and job training.

But due to financial difficulties the west African nation has been going through due to a global slump in oil prices, President Buhari’s government was unable extend the agreement, something that sparked off oil-pipeline attacks in the region and hurt the country’s main source of revenue.

With a young force and a new name – Niger Delta Avengers – the rebel group claims to seek justice for people living in the impoverish-but-oil-rich Niger delta.

Despite the billions of dollars generated since the discovery of crude in Nigeria in the 1950s, most people live in dire poverty around the creeks and rivers of the oil-producing southern delta region.

The Niger Delta Avengers’ attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry have been so effective that the country’s output has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 30 years, researcher and analyst Gregory Brew reported in OilPrice.com.

The group vowed to bring the country’s oil production down “to zero” unless the government meets its demands, including the release of pro-Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu and former top security aide Sambo Dasuki.

Latest estimates by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) suggested that oil production in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, had increased to 1.9 million barrels from 1.4 million barrels a day, International Business Times reported.

Nigeria’s economy has been hit badly by the global fall in oil prices since mid-2014, which has reduced government revenues and forced up inflation to an 11-year high.