Unidentified gunmen have opened fire Friday on two Lebanese workers in southern Nigeria’s Rivers State, killing one.
“The men were shot early this morning. We believe they were on their way to the airport when they were attacked. One died immediately while the other was seriously injured,” a senior police officer told AFP, refusing to be identified.
Meanwhile, two Italian technicians were abducted Friday during a shootout near Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil capital and the main city in Rivers State, Italy’s Deputy Foreign Minister Franco Danieli said.
Lucio Moro and Luciano Passarin, who work for the construction firm Impregilo, were kidnapped after the clash some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the city in the oil-rich Niger Delta, Danieli said, quoted by the ANSA news agency.
A spokeswoman for Rivers state police confirmed the incident.
“The Italians were kidnapped this morning in Ogoniland. We still don’t have the details,” Ireju Barasua told AFP.
Ogoniland is a troubled area in the Niger delta and home to late environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was executed by the military in 1995 over a trumped up murder charge.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell was forced by community unrest to quit Ogoniland in 1993 and has yet to return to the place.
The attacks on Friday came a day after the oil region’s most vocal armed group threatened to retaliate against Italian firm Agip and one state government in the Niger Delta over the release of a Lebanese oil worker which it claimed escaped from its custody.
An industry source said the Lebanese nationals who came under fire were employees of AUC, a construction firm in Port Harcourt, the epicentre of recent militant attacks in the region.
He said the men were attacked on Isiokpe road in Ikwerre Local Government Area, adding that the wounded Lebanese was in the hospital for treatment.
Lebanese embassy officials were not immediately available to comment on the incident.
Lebanese diplomatic sources in Abuja announced Wednesday that Imad Saliba, who was abducted more than two months ago, had been freed and was “safe and well” after undergoing a medical check-up.
But the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), who kidnapped Saliba and three Italian colleagues on December 7, said he escaped. “It was an escape hatched by (oil firm) Agip and the Bayelsa State government.”
“Agip and the Bayelsa State government will pay a hefty price for this slight,” the armed group threatened in an email to AFP.
Two of the Italians abducted with Saliba are still being held by MEND. The third was freed on January 18 because of health problems.
MEND has the highest profile among a number of groups operating in the Niger delta who are seeking to highlight alleged imbalances in the distribution of oil wealth in the region.
Since the beginning of this year, 57 foreigners have been kidnapped by separatist groups and armed gangs in southern Nigeria, almost as many as for the whole of 2006. Most of them have been released.
Around 40 Nigerian security personnel have also been killed in the past year, the latest was on Wednesday night when unknown gunmen shot two soldiers dead and wounded a third in the region.
A senior military officer told AFP the attackers escaped with the rifles of the soldiers. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, accounting for a daily output of 2.6 million barrels, currently loses around half a million barrels of crude to the unrest in the volatile region.
The Niger Delta, a swathe of swamps and creeks and the size of Scotland, is home to Nigeria’s multi-billion-dollar oil and gas resources, but most people in the region live on less than one dollar per day.
The situation has fanned militant agitation in the region, resulting in an upsurge in violent attacks on oil firms and personnel and business interests in related sectors.