A well-known US aid worker has been arrested in the troubled Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria.
Security officials confirmed they had detained Judith Burdin Asuni and two German nationals. Newspaper reports suggest they are suspected of spying.
They were said to have been filming masked youths from the Ijaw community in Delta State.
Delta militants have been conducting a violent campaign for the oil-rich area to get a larger share of the oil money.
Dr Burdin Asuni is married to a Nigerian and has lived in the region for more than a decade.
She runs the non-governmental organisation Academic Associates Peace Work and has run workshops with the Nigerian police on conflict management.
According to sources in the security service who spoke to This Day and The Daily Champion newspapers, Dr Burdin Asuni and her companions are suspected of espionage with the intention of embarrassing Nigeria.
The Niger Delta is home to all of Nigeria’s oil, responsible for 95% of hard currency earnings, but most of the peoples of the Delta live in abject poverty.
This week, the main militant group in the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, called off a truce with the Nigerian government after the arrest of one of its leaders in Angola.
It had announced a voluntary truce after the May inauguration of President Umaru Yar’Adua, but says talks have failed.
Last week, President Yar’Adua ordered an investigation into alleged links between government officials in the Niger Delta and violent criminal gangs.