Kidnapped Chinese workers released in Nigeria

Three Chinese workers abducted by unidentified gunmen in Nigeria's central state of Kogi have been freed unharmed, police sources say. "I can confirm to you that the abducted Chinese workers have been released,” state police spokesman Sola Collins Adebayo told AFP on Saturday, adding, “They were freed today through a joint operation by the police and other security agents." Adebayo further noted that the hostages, who were seized at a quarry outside state capital Lokoja on Friday, were unhurt. The spokesman did not explain whether a ransom was paid to the assailants, who killed a policeman and injured another during their attack on the quarry.

Kidnapping foreign nationals frequently takes place in the violence-wracked Nigeria. Two weeks ago, unknown assailants abducted two other Chinese nationals in Kogi. An American woman, who worked as a missionary in Free Methodist Church in Kogi’s village of Emiworo, was also kidnapped last month and freed last week. Abduction for ransom is also a common phenomenon in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern Niger Delta, where many foreign workers are cooperating with large oil companies.

The Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group has also abducted several people in Nigeria’s strife-torn northeast. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” controls parts of northeastern Nigeria and says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has left over 13,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced.