9 South Korean workers kidnapped in Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria – Gunmen stormed a compound housing expatriate pipeline workers in the oil-rich southern region Wednesday, kidnapping nine South Koreans and a Nigerian, officials said.

Dozens of soldiers and security guards at the complex failed to foil the latest in a series of kidnappings in the area, said Ekiyor Wilson, a local government spokesman.

“We’re making efforts to locate the men and their captors,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the pre-dawn raid in southern Nigeria, where most of the crude is pumped in Africa’s oil giant. A militant group that has carried out dozens of kidnappings, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, said it wasn’t responsible.

AP