05/06/2006

Kidnapped oil workers released

Eight foreign oil workers, including six Britons, who were kidnapped in Nigeria on Friday have been released.

The six Britons, along with an American and a Canadian, were taken hostage from the Bulford Dolphin oil rig in the early hours of Friday morning.

It is understood that the men were released following negotiations instigated by the authorities in Bayelsa state. Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo is understood to have been involved in the efforts to secure the release of the men.

According to reports, the men will arrive in Lagos, in Nigeria, before returning to their own countries.

It is not known who was behind the kidnappings, but the militant group Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta is reported to have said that it was not responsible.

The kidnapping follows a series of attacks on foreign oil interests by rebel groups in Nigeria, which is Africa's largest exporter of oil.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has been carrying out a series of attacks of oil plants and pipelines and it renewed its threat to continue to attack oil installations earlier this year unless there was more local control of oil revenues, as well as compensation for pollution.

(KMcA)

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