Navy seaches oil delta
2003-12-01 09:47
Warri, Nigeria - Nigeria's navy searched creeks and marshes of the West African nation's oil delta on Sunday, hunting for five foreign oil workers kidnapped by local ethnic fighters.
Armed sailors wearing bullet-proof vests set out in boats early on Sunday, three days after the oil workers' capture.
The military hoped to find the village or villages in which the hostages are being held, Lieutenant Ben Charles Anioke, a Navy spokesperson, said.
Ethnic Ijaw militants took a total of seven oil workers hostage on Thursday in the Niger Delta, in Nigeria's restive and oil-rich south.
Two hostages - an Australian and a Russian - were freed earlier, diplomats and Nigerian authorities said.
The five still hostage include a Briton, two Colombians and a Moldovan, according to diplomats. The nationality of the fifth captive is not known.
The men were working for the Scottish-based pipeline company Bredero Shaw.
Hostage-taking is common in Nigeria's oil delta, where activists, thugs and striking workers frequently target oil companies with sabotage, kidnappings and other attacks attempting to extort payoffs. Hostages are rarely harmed.
Ijaw leaders have sent word that the hostages are in good condition, Anioke said.
The hostage-takers are demanding 5 million naira (about R230 000), said Abel Oshevire, speaking for the Delta state government. Negotiations are continuing, Anioke said.
- AP