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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2 March 2006

NIGERIA: Delta militants free six foreign hostages, three still held

WARRI, 2 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Armed militants in Nigeria's turbulent oil-producing region have freed six foreign oil workers after 11 days in captivity but the group is holding on to three others, continuing threats of more attacks to cripple oil exports.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Wednesday initially released 69-year-old US national Macon Hawkins to a group of visiting journalists, and later released five others – two Egyptians, Shalky Aly and Faysal Mohamme; two nationals of Thailand, Damsak Mhaduho and Arak Suwanna; and Filipino Anthony Santos.

The group said they released Hawkins due to his age and poor health and the remaining five because they were considered "low-value" hostages whose countries have no interest in the oil region. The three still being detained are two US nationals and a British citizen.

The released men appeared haggard but not injured, and said they were treated well by their captives.

All nine hostages, employees of US oil service company Willbros Inc., were seized on 18 February from a barge used in laying pipelines on the Forcados River.

MEND is demanding that President Olusegun Obasanjo free two ethnic Ijaw leaders held for alleged offences against the state. The group is also insisting on local control of oil wealth and wants Shell to pay $1.5 billion in compensation for pollution damage; a Nigerian court last week ruled that Shell must make the payment.

MEND, who said no negotiations or discussions have taken place with any government representatives to date, has threatened to carry out more attacks in the coming days.

"We demand the intervention of a neutral arbiter in the resolution of this conflict," the group said in an emailed statement. "We will commence with attacks in another area of the Niger Delta with an aim to ensuring the total discontinuation of export of onshore crude oil."

MEND claims to be fighting for the interests of Ijaws, the majority ethnic group in the oil-rich delta, whose impoverished inhabitants accuse oil multinationals in joint ventures with the Nigerian state of polluting their environment and cheating them out of oil wealth produced in their own backyard.

The group’s attacks in recent weeks have forced Shell to close its operations in the western Niger Delta, accounting for some 445,000 barrels daily or about 50 percent of its Nigerian output. The group’s rupturing a gas pipeline feeding three state-owned power generating plants has cut a quarter of national supply, forcing even longer than usual power cuts.

MEND said its latest attacks were in direct response to air strikes on Ijaw villages by the Nigerian military helicopters days earlier. But the Nigerian military had said the attacks targeted barges used by criminal gangs to siphon crude oil from pipelines in the delta for sale to vessels waiting offshore.

Security agencies say the illegal trade in crude oil is the financing armed groups in the oil region in recent years. Nigeria estimates that as much as 10 percent of its daily exports of 2.5 million barrels are lost to the illegal trade.

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006