| A Nigerian naval officer kidnapped during an attack on a patrol boat in the oil-producing Niger Delta has been found dead, the commander of armed forces in the region said on Tuesday.
Gunmen in seven speedboats attacked the patrol boat on Sunday near Soku, an island in the coastal area of Rivers state, and seized two naval staff, one of them a sub-lieutenant whose body has now been found. “He was found dead and his body was recovered today. We have brought it back to base,” said Brigadier-General Samuel Salihu, commander of a joint military force in charge of security in Rivers. He gave no further details. No one has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack and it is unclear what exactly happened. Militancy and crime flourish in the lawless Niger Delta, where many people live without electricity, clean water or paved roads alongside Africa’s biggest oil industry. Nigerian soldiers are regarded by many residents as agents of a corrupt and neglectful state and they are frequent targets of attacks. The armed forces cannot control the delta’s thousands of mangrove-lined waterways and are often outgunned by militias. Attacks on oil facilities, kidnappings for ransom and theft of crude oil are all common. Five Chinese telecom workers are being held in another part of Rivers after being abducted on Friday. Their kidnappers have demanded a ransom. Separately, the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is holding three Italians and one Lebanese employed by Italian oil company Agip. The MEND, which says it is fighting for local control of oil wealth and reparations for neglect and pollution, was responsible for a series of attacks on oil facilities that have forced the closure of a fifth of Nigeria’s output capacity. |
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Jan102007