Oil-rich southern Nigeria’s most high-profile armed group said it will on Wednesday unconditionally release six foreign oil workers it has been holding hostage for the past month.
“Yes, we will release the hostages unconditionally tomorrow. We are however working out details of their release to their employers,” a spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said Tuesday in an email to AFP.
MEND seized the men: four Italians, a US national and a Croatian oil worker on May 1 from a floating storage vessel operated by Chevron Nigeria Limited in southern Nigeria.
The group said the attack was intended to shame the government of president Olusegun Obasanjo, whose successor took oath on Tuesday.
Immediately after taking the hostages, MEND said they would be released unconditionally on May 30 provided no bungled attempts to free them were made in the meantime.
Nigeria’s new President Umaru Yar’Adua, in his inauguration speech Tuesday pledged to tackle unrest in the Niger Delta that has caused a 25 percent drop in the oil-rich country’s crude output.
“The crisis in the Niger Delta commands our urgent attention. Ending it is a matter of strategic importance to our country,” Yar’Adua said.
“In the meantime I appeal to all aggrieved communities, groups and individuals to immediately suspend all violent activities and respect the law,” the incoming president said.
He said that would create a conducive atmosphere for dialogue.
The MEND spokesman, asked about his reponse to the appeal, said MEND might consider a “suspension” of hostilities but added: “We should be given good reason to halt our attacks and not just promise of dialogue”.
In the email to AFP, he ruled out any total cessation of hostilities “until our demands are met in full”.
“As you can imagine, we are sick from unfulfiled promises and have little time to waste on the words of yet another politician,” the spokesman said.
MEND is demanding, amongst other things, the release of two Niger Delta separatist leaders.
Around 180 foreigners — mostly oil workers — have been taken hostage by militant groups and armed gangs in southern Nigeria in the past 18 months.