Two Croats, one Montenegrin kidnapped in Nigeria

Two Croats, one Montenegrin kidnapped in Nigeria

"The kidnappers have not yet made any demands but we expect that this is about ransom," Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Vinko Ljubičić told state news agency Hina.

The managing director of offshore oil services company Hydrodive Nigeria, David Ross, said they were contracted to work on one of the company's vessels.

Independent Croatian news website Index.hr quoted Croatian employment agency Mariner, which sent the two Croatians to Nigeria, as saying negotiations had started with the abductors. "The hostages are well, they have not been mistreated. Negotiations have begun," an agency official told the website.

Oil industry sources said the men were drinking in a bar outside their base when gunmen stormed the area.The kidnapping raised to nine the number of foreigners being held by different armed groups in the Niger Delta, Africa's top oil-producing region.

An American engineer and his Nigerian driver were released by their captors on Saturday after a four-week detention.

Kidnapping for ransom has become an almost weekly occurrence in Port Harcourt since the beginning of the year, and analysts link the upsurge in violence to tension surrounding Nigeria's forthcoming elections.

Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999 after three decades of almost continuous army dictatorship, but thuggery is still part of politics. Elections in April should mark the first time one elected president hands over to another, and tensions are running high amid feuding in the ruling party.

Politicians arm gangs lay claim to territory and protect votes, and these groups often engage in freelance violence of their own - sometimes in league with government officials.

Militancy is also on the rise in the delta, a vast wetlands region where poor villages play reluctant host to multibillion-dollar oil platforms, and where militants fighting for regional control over oil wealth have attacked facilities.

The US consulate in Nigeria warned its citizens last week that a militant group from the delta was planning to extend its action against Westerners outside the delta region.

The warning gave few details of where the attack might occur, but oil traders said it helped fuel fears of widening conflict and oil futures prices rose as a result.