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Stand-off in oil hostage crisis
14/01/2006 12:07 - (SA)
Lagos - Four foreign oil workers began their fourth day of captivity on board a pirate boat hidden in the creeks of the Niger Delta jungle Saturday as Nigerian security forces tried to negotiate their release.
The oilmen - an American, a Briton, a Bulgarian and a Honduran - were seized from their offshore supply vessel on Wednesday by a 40-strong gang of gunmen and taken into the swamps south of the port city of Warri.
On Friday, a statement purporting to be from the group demanded the release of two local leaders associated with the struggle of the Ijaw ethnic group to control resources in the delta, the heart of Africa's biggest oil industry.
Nigerian navy spokesman Captain Obiara Medani said officials had contacted the group but refused to comment on their demands, saying this was a political issue and that the navy's priority was the hostages' safe release.
"There has been no new information overnight. We have people on the ground in Bayelsa State, we're waiting for them to report back," he said.
A spokeswoman for Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, Remi Oyo, said she had no knowledge of the demand.
On Friday, the Bulgarian foreign ministry told AFP that the kidnappers were demanding the release of the two Ijaw leaders.
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