Security

16.8, kidnapping

Nigeria: two Norwegian and two Ukrainian oil workers held hostage in Nigeria were freed. The four workers were taken a week earlier from a vessel (anchor handling tug/supply Northern Comrade ) servicing an offshore oil rig operated by Peak Petroleum, in partnership with Equator Exploration. Peak is in dispute with a local community over jobs and other benefits. About 16 foreign oil workers were kidnapped in five separate abductions in the past two weeks in the oil producing Niger Delta. Nine have been released. Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the military and police to meet criminals in the delta “force for force”. Mr Obasanjo also threatened to sanction firms caught paying ransoms, a practice which analysts say has fuelled the violence. The four men were released after Peak struck an agreement to include the community in their benefits package, with the blessing of the local government.