BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

07/05/2007

Female oil worker captured in Nigeria

Nigerian militants kidnapped a Belarusian oil worker, the Belapan news wire service reported on Monday.

The attack took place in the coastal city Port Harcourt, in the heart of Nigeria's Niger Delta oil-producing region.

A group of armed men captured Irina Ekpo-Umo, aged 48, as she was driving home from work. She was not harmed in the attack, eyewitnesses said.

Ekpo-Umo is a senior manager in the Nigeria-registered company Whassan Eurest Nigeria Limited (WENL), which specialises in trading oil, said Maria Vanshina, a Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

She had been living in Nigeria since 1989, and was married to a Nigerian citizen, Vanshina said.

Interpol was investigating the attack and the Belarusian government had sent a note of protest to Lagos, she said.

Nigeria and Belarus have no diplomatic relations. Russian envoys in the African nation were acting as intermediaries, according to the report.

Six employees of the United States oil company Chevron were abducted from a Nigerian oil platform on Tuesday. The victims were four Italians, a US national, and a Croat.

Foreigners are often kidnapped in the Niger Delta, but are usually released after a ransom has been paid. - Sapa-DPA

Source:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=nw20070507140255711C448199