Series of Kidnaps Again Witnessed in the Niger-Delta

No less than 20 foreign expatriates were kidnapped in three separate attacks, which began on Wednesday the 3rd day of May, at about 9.30 pm. On this said day, a group of gunmen stormed a bar on Enerhen road in Warri, Delta state where an unemployed Dutch, Peter Vankamppen was kidnapped. This was then followed by another attack, in the early hours of Thursday at about 1.00am, which saw the seizure of three Koreans, one of them the Managing Director of Daewoo group, Chung Tae-Young, and eight Philippine workers from Afam Power Station in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers state. About two hours later, another attack was staged some 55 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny. This third attack saw the kidnap of another set of eight expatriates (one Briton- Mr. David Flounders, two Croatians- Dean Stifanic and Damir Leka, one Australian- Don Ford, one Romanian- Traofin Betrot, one Chilean- Hector Gomez and two Poles- Iber Marcin and Wieskaw Miazaret) working on a floating storage vessel operated by Italian oil giant, ENI, and Single Bouy Moorings (the Mystras). These eight expatriate workers were however, released after five hours. An official of Single Buoy Moorings (SBM) said the attack had forced a shutdown in crude production, leading to a loss of between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels per day of crude oil on the Okono field where the vessel was moored. However, a report holds it that there had been an attack on a facility belonging to Chevron Nigeria Limited on Tuesday the 2nd day of May, in which six expatriate oil workers (four Italians- Rafflele Pascariello, Alfonso Frawza, Mario Celetano and Ignazio Gugliotic, one American- John Stapleton and one Croatian- Juricha Ruic) were kidnapped, also leading to the death of a Nigerian Naval Officer.
  The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), one of the militant groups involved in much of the violence witnessed in the Niger-Delta, have claimed responsibility for the Mystras attack and said it had since released the hostages, saying that “they have no need for more hostages just yet”.