Kidnappers grabbed seven foreign workers off a merchant ship Saturday in the latest hostage-taking in Nigeria’s restive southern oil-producing region, officials said.
Militants seeking to pressure the national government into giving more local control over the area’s oil resources have stepped up kidnappings since launching a wave of attacks on oil facilities in early 2006 that have cut oil exports by Africa’s biggest oil producer 25 percent.
A spokesman for Nigeria’s Delta state, Ozoene Sheddy, said the seven workers were taken off a merchant ship as it traveled in the coastal region of swamps and creeks.
Sheddy couldn’t give nationalities of the captives and had no further details. But Philippines nationals were believed among the captives, two private security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak with journalists.
Militants behind dozens of kidnappings in recent months couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the latest incident.
Nearly 100 foreign hostages, mostly oil workers, have generally been released unharmed, usually after a ransom is paid. However, a Briton and a Nigerian died in crossfire during a gunbattle between militants and Nigerian security forces trying to free the hostages.
On Thursday, militants released five Chinese hostages and one Italian who had been taken in separate incidents. Two Italians and one Lebanese remained in captivity.
The conflict stems from the deep poverty that afflicts the people of the Niger River delta despite the area’s production of tens of billions of dollars in oil revenue every year. Violence has cut oil production below 2 million barrels a day, compared to the previous 2.5 million.