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Hostage oil workers released
22/10/2007 20:22 - (SA)
Abuja - All seven foreign hostages seized by gunmen from an offshore Nigerian oil field were released on Monday after two days in captivity, a state government spokesperson said.
The attack on Shell's EA field was the first big raid on an oil facility since President Umaru Yar'Adua took office in May. Authorities are working hard to ensure it does not derail a peace initiative in Africa's top oil producing region.
A spokesperson for the Bayelsa state government, Ebimo Amungo, said: "The hostages are all in government house."
A security sources earlier said that the Nigerian government
was negotiating with the gunmen who seized the workers over the
weekend.
Attackers most likely from a splinter group
Four Nigerians, a Briton, a Russian and a Croat were seized.
The attack had no immediate impact on oil output because the
field was still inoperative after a militant attack in
February 2006. The field had been expected to restart by the
middle of next year.
Shell said it evacuated all other staff from the EA field,
which has a capacity of 115 000 barrels per day and other
companies also raised their security alert levels.
A person identifying himself as a member of the Movement for
the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) sent an e-mail to the
media on Sunday claiming responsibility for the raid, and
demanding the release of a MEND leader, Henry Okah, from jail in
Angola where he has been held for seven weeks.
But militant sources and government officials said the
sender of that e-mail, who called himself Don Pedro, was likely
not responsible for Saturday's raid.
The attackers were more likely a splinter group which has
not yet been brought into the government's peace process and
which could have been hired to stage the attack, they said.
When Yar'Adua took office, he promised to address the
grievances of militants in the delta whose attacks and
kidnappings have crippled oil production and driven away
thousands of foreign workers.
They are demanding greater regional control over the oil
revenues, jobs and development in the anarchic wetlands.
Many armed groups have since formed into a committee and
have been holding regular talks with government officials to
prepare for a formal conference before the end of the year.
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