Militants who attacked a military convoy escorting oil workers in the restive south freed nine of 25 the Nigerians taken in the deadly raid as fresh violence flared Tuesday, company and military officials said.
Eurwen Thomas, a Royal Dutch Shell PLC spokeswoman, had no further details on the remaining 16 Shell subcontractor hostages, taken Monday in southern region where most of the crude from Africa’s largest oil producer is pumped.
Also Tuesday, militants attacked a boat carrying oil-services workers in the same area of the swampy Niger Delta, wounding several soldiers, including one seriously, said a private security official.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of company rules against speaking to the media. A military official, also prohibited from speaking to reporters, confirmed an attack.
Monday, Army spokesman Maj. Sagir Musa said earlier at least five people died and nine more were missing after around 70 militants in black shirts and red bandanas sank two military patrol boats in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta.
Troops were escorting diesel, supplies and employees in the volatile delta region, where attacks over the past year pared away nearly a quarter of Nigeria’s usual output. Nigeria is Africa’s largest petroleum producer and the fifth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States.
Ojediran said no oil workers had been killed or injured in Monday’s attack, although one civilian working for the military had perished. A group calling itself a coalition of militant groups in the Niger Delta region claimed responsibility.
The coalition demanded the release of imprisoned militant leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and said the killings were in revenge for attacks by soldiers on local communities.
However, an e-mail from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, one of the groups the coalition claims to represent, denied responsibility for the attack.
Militant attacks and kidnappings have cut oil production in Africa’s largest crude producer by over a quarter so far this year. After a Nigerian employee of Royal Dutch Shell was killed during a botched rescue operation in August, oil unions called strikes that severely disrupted transport.
Despite the Niger delta’s massive energy resources, the vast majority of the region’s people have no access to clean water or electricity and live in extreme poverty. Some in the region say kidnappings and attacks that grab international attention are some of the only means of protest available to them. Others steal diesel or crude oil to sell on the black market in the name of resource control.