Nigerian separatist guerrillas have split up a group of three US and British oil workers they have been holding hostage, amid rising tensions, a man who identified himself as one of the captives told AFP today.
“I want to let you know that I haven’t seen the other two guys for two days. You need to meet these people’s demands real fast,” said a softly spoken young man with an American accent who identified himself as US hostage Cody Oswald.
Oswald is one of three oil workers, along with fellow American Russell Spell and British security expert John Hudspith, who have been held in the swamps of southern Nigeria since armed guerrillas seized them on February 18.
A man who identified himself as a commander in the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) called AFP on Tuesday to reiterate the group’s demands. He put briefly Oswald on the line to the reporter.
The hostage said that he had remained in the location where the hostages had previously been held, but that his US and British colleagues had been moved.
“You need to do want they want and soon and fast,” he said, before the telephone was taken from him and went dead.
The militant said the men would not be released until Nigeria pulled all military forces from the Niger Delta, the oil giant Shell paid 1.5 billion dollars (1.2 million euros) to polluted villages and three ethnic Ijaw leaders were freed from jail.