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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Militants in southern Nigeria released six oil workers taken hostage by a group demanding $20 million from Shell for local communities, a government official said on Saturday.
A group called the Iduwuni National Union for Peace and Development had claimed responsibility for kidnapping the two German and four Nigerian workers subcontracted to Shell, demanding the company pay the money as compensation for pollution and environmental degradation due to oil activities.
"They were released unconditionally," said Preye Wariowei, a spokesman for the Nigerian state of Bayelsa, where the workers were seized by gunmen on Wednesday. He said the two Germans were now in the care of their direct employer, the German firm Bilfinger Berger.
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