Militants in Nigeria released five Chinese hostages and one of three Italian oil-workers seized in separate attacks in the country’s oil-rich southern delta region, officials and militants said on Thursday.
The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has launched crippling assaults against the energy industry in Africa’s oil giant since last year, announced the Italian’s release in an e-mailed statement and identified the freed hostage as Roberto Dieghi.
Three Italians and one Lebanese man were seized in the December 7 raid on an oil export terminal operated by Agip, a subsidiary of Italian oil firm Eni SpA. Eni confirmed Dieghi’s release in a brief statement posted on its website. It did not release any details on his condition.
The two other Italians and the Lebanese remained in custody, the militants said.
”There are no discussions ongoing about the release of the remaining two Italians and one Lebanese still in our custody,” it said. ”They are being held indefinitely.”
Separately, Nigerian government officials and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said five Chinese telecommunications workers kidnapped nearly two weeks ago had been freed by their captors. The militant group earlier denied responsibility for that incident.
The Chinese workers taken on January 5 from their residence were released on Wednesday night in Nigeria, the ministry said in a brief statement on its website. It said the Foreign and Commerce ministries and China’s embassy in Nigeria had worked with the Nigerian government to secure the workers’ release.
”All have been safely rescued,” the statement said without providing details on how they were released. A Rivers state government official, Emeke Woke, said the Chinese were handed over to their company’s lawyers in that state.
Nigerian militants have frequently taken foreign workers hostage since launching a wave of attacks on the country’s oil industry since early 2006 that have cut oil exports in Africa’s leading oil producer by 25%.
About 80 foreign oil workers were seized last year. Kidnappings generally end peacefully. One Briton, however, died in a gunfight between his militant captors and Nigerian government forces.
On Tuesday, 16 gunmen aboard two boats approached a vessel carrying 10 oil workers including those from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
A Dutch national and two Nigerians were killed and five others, including the South Korean worker, were wounded in the attack as they traveled from Port Harcourt to Bonny Island in the southern delta, it added. The gunmen removed goods from the boat after the attack.
Despite producing tens of billions of dollars in oil revenue every year, the delta region remains deeply impoverished. Attacks on foreign workers by armed robbers, kidnappers and militants demanding a greater share of the country’s oil wealth are common.
Nigeria, which is preparing for presidential elections in April, used to produce 2,5-million barrels of oil per day.
The militants, who want more local control over oil resources currently apportioned by the federal government, vowed their campaign would go on.
”The only alternative to our armed campaign against the oil industry is the restoration of the stolen wealth of the Niger Delta people to its rightful owners,” the statement said.
However the group also said it would halt the kidnappings.
”We will rather change tactics, desisting from kidnappings and concentrate on acts of sabotage, including bombings, aimed at crippling the oil sector,” it said. – Sapa-AP