The four "Shell" oil company workers taken hostage on January 11 have been released, says a Nigerian government statement. As has been reported, the Bulgarian, American, Briton and Honduran were seized by militants of Nigerian ethnic "Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta" on January 11.
The group that abducted the four foreigners employed by the "Royal Dutch Shell" oil company had been demanding control over oil fields in the River Niger delta. The gunmen had also been demanding that the concern pay the State of Bayelsa $1.5 billion in compensation for the ecological damage inflicted by the oil company on that part of Nigeria.
Each of the four hostages had read the extremists' demands by phone from a text seemingly written by the abductors. To save their lives, they all pleaded with the Nigerian authorities to refrain from any attempt to free them by force. The "Shell" management has not disclosed on what conditions the hostages had been released.
The group that abducted the four foreigners employed by the "Royal Dutch Shell" oil company had been demanding control over oil fields in the River Niger delta. The gunmen had also been demanding that the concern pay the State of Bayelsa $1.5 billion in compensation for the ecological damage inflicted by the oil company on that part of Nigeria.
Each of the four hostages had read the extremists' demands by phone from a text seemingly written by the abductors. To save their lives, they all pleaded with the Nigerian authorities to refrain from any attempt to free them by force. The "Shell" management has not disclosed on what conditions the hostages had been released.
