Reuters) – Gunmen in speed boats kidnapped a Dutch security manager of a German construction company in Nigeria’s oil city of Port Harcourt on Friday, security sources said.
The attackers invaded the construction yard of Bilfinger Berger on the waterfront at dawn, engaged guards in a three-hour shootout and abducted the security manager when he went to investigate what was happening.
“They attacked in three speed boats and fought their way into the camp. The security manager went out to see what was happening and got lifted,” a security source said.
The company has tried unsuccessfully to contact the group that kidnapped him, he added.
Kidnappings of foreign oil workers have become an almost weekly occurrence this year in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil capital, and thousands of foreign workers have fled the Niger Delta since last year.
Militant attacks, invasions and kidnappings have forced oil companies to reduce Nigerian output by about one fifth since February 2006.