Oil workers targeted as Nigeria violence grows

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) – Lolo Oluchi has painted over the bullet holes in the ceiling of her karaoke bar in this Nigerian oil city, where gunmen seized seven foreign oil workers last August, but the regulars haven’t come back.

Thousands of foreign workers and their families have left Africa’s top oil producer since a faceless new militant group launched unprecedented attacks about a year ago on the places where they work, live and relax.


Those still left in the industry yards of Port Harcourt and on oilfields in the remote creeks of the surrounding Niger Delta are braving a surge in violence under a security clampdown.

“People are scared of coming out. Before, you couldn’t move in here on a good night. Now we get five or six customers. Sometimes one or two. Sometimes none,” said Oluchi, pointing to the empty seats in her Goodfellas club.

Reuters