A German oil worker taken hostage at gunpoint in Nigeria was freed overnight unharmed after two weeks in captivity, a state government spokesman said today.
The release of Guido Schiffarth last night was simultaneous with, but not a result of, a military raid on a suspected militant hideout on the outskirts of Port Harcourt, the largest city in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta.
"I was well treated and respected," Mr Schiffarth was quoted as saying by a spokesman for the Rivers State government.
The 62-year-old employee of Bilfinger and Berger was snatched from his car by armed men disguised as soldiers in Port Harcourt on August 3rd, one of seven separate abductions in Africa's top oil producer this month.
"We have released Mr Guido Schiffarth on compassionate grounds. We wish him well," said the Movement for the Niger Delta People, reiterating its demands for the release of two jailed leaders from the delta who campaigned for a greater share of the region's oil wealth.
There are now seven foreign workers in captivity - Irishman, Bryan Fogerty; two Britons, an American, a German, a Pole, an Irish and a Lebanese - while 10 have been released.
Royal Dutch Shell said today one of its staff, a Nigerian, had been abducted by a community in nearby Bayelsa state on August 8th over a land compensation dispute.
Nobody was killed in yesterday's raid in Port Harcourt, but several people were arrested and others were beaten as troops and police combed the riverside slum area of Ilabuchi and Eagle Island.
The raid came in response to an order from President Olusegun Obasanjo to use "force for force" in the vast wetlands region of southern Nigeria, especially in the eastern delta around Port Harcourt where the latest abductions have occurred.
The kidnappings follow a series of attacks on the oil industry in February which forced Shell to evacuate hundreds of workers from oilfields in the western delta, reducing the OPEC member nation's output by a quarter.
Some abductions are for ransom, while others are by communities trying to extract money or other benefits from oil companies operating in their area.
Several recent kidnappings and attacks have taken on a more political tone, with demands reflecting a growing ethnic nationalism of the Ijaw tribe, native to the Niger Delta.