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Friday, May 04, 2007
Nigeria negotiating release of 8 Pinoys, 3 others kidnapped in oil region (10:45 p.m.)
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Negotiators have reached gunmen holding 11 foreigners seized in an attack on a power plant in Nigeria's southern oil region and are pressing for the hostages' release, a military spokesman said Friday.
The eight Filipinos and three South Koreans were among 21 people taken hostage in three attacks across the oil-rich Niger river delta Thursday that left a Nigerian soldier dead. Nine of them, including eight foreigners, were freed later the same day.
"There is contact with the kidnappers and negotiations are going on to ensure release of the hostages," said Maj. Sagir Musa, spokesman for a joint military task force charged with security in the troubled region.
Musa said officers of the military task force were conducting the negotiations along with other security agencies. He would not say where or how the contacts were made.
Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said the country is coordinating with the Nigerian government to work for the immediate release of the eight abducted Filipinos, and that he was set to meet later Friday with representatives of the Korean and Nigerian embassies.
The hostages were kidnapped from the site of a power plant undergoing maintenance by South Korea's Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the Nigerian driver was later freed. The Nigerian army said one soldier was killed in the attack.
No group has publicly claimed responsibility for the Daewoo attack.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main militant group in the region, claimed responsibility for a separate attack on a ship anchored off the oil hub of Port Harcourt. It later released the eight foreigners seized.
The group denied it was behind raids on the power plant and another attack in a bar in the oil-port city of Warri in which a Dutch national was kidnapped. All the raids occurred over less than 12 hours.
Italian oil firm Eni SpA confirmed an Australian, a Briton, two Croats, two Poles and a Romanian were among those taken from the ship managed by its subsidiary and anchored about 55 miles (90 kilometers) off the coast of the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt.
Such seizures are common in Africa's largest oil producer, where militants and criminals use them as leverage against the government, or to extract cash.
The three kidnappings bring the total number of foreigners kidnapped in the Niger delta so far this year to at least 93, surpassing the figure for all last year for the first time. In 2006, over 80 foreigners were seized in the region.
Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the United States' fifth-largest supplier, usually exporting 2.5 million barrels daily.
Unrest has plagued Nigeria's southern delta region for years, and in recent months gunmen have stepped up a campaign against the oil industry, blowing up oil pipelines to cut production by a fifth and kidnapping scores of foreign workers. Most captives are released unharmed. (AP)
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