Hostages reportedly released in Nigeria
Officials in an oil-rich southern Nigeria state where militants took nine foreigners hostage, including a British man, were today investigating conflicting reports that three of the captives had been released on medical grounds.
An email purportedly from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta militants said they had released one diabetic American and two ill Egyptian hostages.
Another militant official denied the report however, and Abel Oshey, spokesman for Delta State Governor James Ibori, said officials there were trying to confirm whether any captives had been released.
A military spokesman in the region had no information on any hostages being freed.
The militants took the nine hostages on February 18 amid a series of assaults on the oil industry that cut production by about 20% in Africa’s largest producer of crude.
Four hostages taken in an earlier attack were released unharmed.
