LAGOS - Eighteen of the 127 Shell Oil workers held hostage since Saturday in southern Nigeria were released on Monday, a spokesman for the Anglo-Dutch oil group said yesterday.
No details were given of the contacts that Shell had with the armed hostage-takers - members of the local Ijaw community in Delta state - that led to the hostages' release.
The remaining 109 hostages, including the three injured on Monday in a violent incident yet to be explained, were still being held yesterday, the Shell spokesman said.