Continental Focus, International Reach

Oil Workers Kidnapped in Niger Delta

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Three British oil workers and one Columbian contractor were abducted by gunmen in the Niger Delta. The workers were employed at Shell’s Afam gas and power plant east of Port Harcourt. The men worked for Netco Dietsmann, a venture between Nigeria’s state-owned National Engineering and Technical Company and Dietsmann.

No group has yet claimed responsibility but in recent years armed groups claiming to be fighting for a fairer share of Nigeria’s oil wealth have used kidnapping to raise funds and awareness. A foreign office spokesman in Abuja said that the British Government was treating the kidnap “as a matter of great urgency.”

The tide of kidnappings and attacks had slowed down over the past few months under the government’s amnesty plan. Howeve,r due to lack of attention by Nigerian officials to the amnesty because of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health issues the incidence of attacks in the Niger Delta have been increasing.


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