Two Norwegian and two Ukrainian oil workers being held hostage in Nigeria were freed on Tuesday as the government promised to crack down on a surge in unrest in Africa’s largest oil producer. About 16 foreign oil workers have been kidnapped in five separate abductions in the past two weeks in the oil-producing Niger Delta. Nine have been released.
“We are going to be firm and say no to violence and hostage-taking. Wherever we find hostage-takers now, we will hunt them down. We will not accept this any longer,” President Olusegun Obasanjo said in a statement after meeting security chiefs and political leaders from the delta.