British girl, aged three, abducted in Nigeria
Friday, 6 July 2007
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The three-year-old daughter of a British expatriate worker was kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria yesterday as she was being driven to school.
The armed gang smashed windows and dragged Margaret Hall out of the car as it sat in heavy traffic at Port Harcourt, in country's southern oil region.
The area has been the scene of violent clashes between a local militant group and government forces and yesterday's abduction followed that of five oil workers on Wednesday.
A woman who saw the ambush said up to seven gunmen scared away onlookers by firing rifles in the air. They then broke in the window with their gunstocks, dragged out the child and bundled her away in a Peugeot car, she said. In London, the Foreign Office called for the child's "immediate safe release". A spokeswoman said: "We do not know who took her. We are in contact with her parents and are providing assistance. High commission officials are in contact with the Nigerian authorities." The Foreign Office was advising British nationals in the Delta states to leave, she added.
More than a dozen foreigners are currently in captivity and about 200 have been taken since the end of 2005. Most have been released after the payment of ransoms but there have been deaths in crossfire during botched government rescue attempts. David Hunt, 58, from Teesside, was killed in such an incident last year.
Margaret's kidnapping, however, is the first time a foreign child has been targeted. Two other children, of a prominent politician and a businessman, were snatched in the last few weeks. Both were freed after their parents paid.
The main local militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which recently ended a month-long ceasefire, denied it was behind Margaret's abduction.
In Wednesday's attack, on a Royal Dutch Shell oil rig, an Australian, two New Zealanders, a Lebanese and a Venezuelan were taken.
The two New Zealanders have been named as Bruce Klenner and Brent Goddard. The New Zealand government has ruled out the payment any ransom for the pair.
"It's never been the New Zealand government's policy to pay ransoms and I don't expect that to change," said the Prime Minister, Helen Clark. She maintained the situation in the Niger Delta was not "particularly dangerous from a personal security point of view. There has been considerable instability in Nigeria, particularly around oil company related issues. So people do go to work there knowing it's not the safest place to be".
The bulk of Nigeria's production of oil is in the Delta region, but, say militant groups, the locals benefit little from that wealth. As well as the militias, there is almost endemic lawlessness in the area from criminal gangs and members of government forces who have carried out robberies and unlawful arrests.
The new Nigerian President, Umaru Yar'Adua, claims he is trying to address local concerns in the Delta and has sent his deputy, who is that from that region, to lead negotiations.
