Kidnappers freed four foreign oil-worker hostages Tuesday amid a rash of attacks on the petroleum industry in Nigeria, Africa’s largest pumper of crude, police said.
The two Ukrainians and two Norwegians kidnapped last week were handed over to authorities in the southern oil center of Port Harcourt, said Bayelsa State Police Commissioner Hafiz Ringim.
“They are doing very well,” he said by telephone.
Ringim said he wasn’t aware any ransom was paid for the oil workers’ release and said police were investigating the kidnapping.
Of the 14 expatriate oil-industry workers seized in the past 10 days across the Niger Delta, nine have been freed, all unharmed. The whereabouts of two Germans, two Britons and one American are still unknown.
Hostage takings and violence against the oil industry is common in the turbulent Niger Delta region, where much of the crude in Africa’s oil giant is pumped. Despite the vast oil revenues, most of the region’s people remain deeply impoverished, lacking proper schools, wells, roads or health care.
Hostages, who are rarely harmed, are often used as bargaining chips by local communities to force payments or development schemes from Nigeria’s federal government or the oil companies operating in the region.
Attacks since December have cut production by 20 percent from the regular 2.6 million barrels pumped daily in Nigeria, the largest producer of crude in Africa and a major supplier of oil for the United States.
On Monday, five foreign oil workers gained their freedom — only hours after gunmen snatched two Britons, an American and a German from a Port Harcourt nightclub.
Another German was taken independently. Germany is now warning against travel to the Niger Delta and oil firms are stepping up security procedures.