Wave of delta kidnappings rings alarm bells
After a relative calm period, unrest in the Niger delta could be on the rise
Fears that militant violence and sabotage in the Niger delta are about to take off again has been fuelled by a spate of kidnappings of oil industry workers over recent weeks. In one incident, two Royal Dutch Shell workers were abducted in Nigeria's oil rich Rivers state in late April 2019, while their police escorts were killed. The two workers—from Canada and the UK—were released after a week, but there are concerns that there will be more problems to come, as Delta unrest picks up after a relatively quiet period. "In the last month, we have had a total of 11 people kidnapped within the oil industry", says Cheta Nwanze, head of research at Lagos-based risk advisory firm, SBM Intelligence, w
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