Hostages freed but kidnaps go on in Nigeria oil delta

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Two hostages seized by gunmen in separate incidents in Nigeria’s Niger Delta this week were freed on Thursday, but security sources said another expatriate was kidnapped in the main oil city.

The Niger Delta, home to Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry, has long been plagued by kidnappings but the number of attacks on vessels this year and abductions in areas previously considered relatively safe has alarmed the security forces.

A Romanian oil worker taken from an oil tanker off the coast of the Niger Delta on Wednesday was released early on Thursday, according to Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in the southern state of Rivers.

His kidnappers used dynamite to attack the MT Meredith tanker as it travelled from the main commercial city Lagos to the oil hub of Port Harcourt laden with 4,000 tonnes of diesel.

It was the eighth such attack on shipping in waters off the Niger Delta this year.

Reuters