2007年VOA标准英语-US Oil Workers Abducted in Southern Nigeria

Attackers carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a transport vessel¹ carrying oil workers off the southern coast of Nigeria, kidnapping four Americans late Tuesday. Gilbert da Costa reports for VOA from Abuja on the escalating² violence in the oil-rich territory.

More than 30 foreigners have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta³ since the start of the month, a dramatic upsurge in attacks on oil facilities and workers so far this year.

Most of those seized have been released.

The wetland region's high-profile armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation⁴ of the Niger Delta, attacked three oil pipelines⁵ Tuesday in a renewed campaign to cripple the Nigerian oil industry.

Ibiba Don Pedro, a newspaper editor in the main oil city of Port Harcourt where most of the current violence had been centered, says the petroleum-producing territory is fast slipping into anarchy⁶.

"We are moving, firmly, firmly, beginning from Rivers state, in the direction of Somalia, where you have warlords controlling sections of Rivers state," said Pedro. "That is where we are going, I can tell you that with everything I have observed. Perhaps in the next two, three years it is going to blow out and we are going to have a totally lawless. Rivers state - the capital of the oil industry in the country."

Rich in oil reserves, the Niger Delta has long become a battleground for militants⁸ who claim to be fighting for a larger share of the country's oil wealth for local people and armed gangs out to make ransom⁹ money.

Pedro draws a correlation¹⁰ between recent elections and the spiraling violence, noting that politicians have long armed groups in the region.

"It is just a confused mess really, much of what is happening. You have militants who were helping¹¹ the PDP [ruling Peoples' Democratic Party] carry ballot¹² boxes, intimidate¹³ people in Okrika, in Port Harcourt," added Pedro. "They were at the center of the bombing of police stations and all of that. I learned that authoritatively¹⁴ only few days ago."

The kidnapped Americans were part of a group of workers laying pipelines for U.S. contractor¹⁵ Global Industries, working for oil giant Chevron¹⁶ at its Okan oilfield in Southern Nigeria.

Thousands of foreign oil workers have been evacuated¹⁷ from Nigeria because of militant⁷ attacks since February 2006.