Five oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria rig attack

An oil company working in Nigeria’s restive and oil-rich southern delta said today that five of its employees were kidnapped and two others wounded during an attack on an offshore oil rig.

In a statement, London-based Afren said the two wounded employees were “evacuated by helicopter to a shore-based clinic”.

The company said the attack happened on a rig which recently arrived off the coast of Akwa Ibom state.

It offered no other details. It was not known if the employees were locals or foreigners.

Militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta began a campaign of kidnapping and pipeline bombings in 2006, upset over pollution and the region’s endemic poverty despite 50 years of oil production.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.