Three Western oil workers were released Monday after having been taken captive last month by militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta state, a government spokesman told CNN.
According to Abel Oshevire, Americans Cody Oswald and Russell Spell and Briton John Hudspith were the final three hostages released by a group opposed to foreign oil investors.
“They have been handed over to Shell officials and embassy personnel in Warri,” Oshevire said. “They are well.”
The other six hostages were released on March 1, after all were abducted on February 18.
The Reuters news service reported that the three men were handed to the governor of Nigeria’s southern Delta state by an ethnic Ijaw leader.
“(The three) are in very good health and high spirits,” said Abel Oshevire, a spokesman for Delta state, in the Reuters report. “Of course, they are a bit agitated after a month in captivity.”
The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has demanded a greater share of the region’s huge oil wealth, the release of two jailed Ijaw leaders and compensation for oil pollution as conditions for freeing the hostages, Reuters reported.