Foreign hostages rescued in Nigeria

The Nigerian military rescued two Croats and one Montenegrin man who were abducted in the oil-producing Niger Delta, a state …

The Nigerian military rescued two Croats and one Montenegrin man who were abducted in the oil-producing Niger Delta, a state government spokesman said.

The three men, working for oil services company Hydrodive, were kidnapped on February 19th from a bar outside their base in the city of Port Harcourt.

"They were rescued from Ogbakiri last night by a military operation," an oil industry source said.

A community leader in Ogbakiri, a waterside village a few miles outside Port Harcourt, said troops had invaded the area shooting, made several arrests and had beaten up residents.

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Two Italians and one Frenchman seized by different armed groups are still in captivity in the Niger Delta.

Thousands of foreign oil workers have fled Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, since an escalation in kidnappings and militant raids last year. A fifth of Nigeria's oil output has been shut by militant attacks for more than a year.