Opuama youths release four of six Shell hostages

Youths from the Opuama community near the Niger Delta town of Warri released on Thursday four of six employees of Royal Dutch/Shell they kidnapped last week, a spokesman for the multinational told IRIN. The official, Bisi Ojediran, said on Friday that the kidnappers made no monetary demands for the hostages’ freedom. Their release was as a result of negotiations with Opuama community leaders, Ojediran said. The remaining hostages are being held in an undisclosed area near Warri. The six hostages were taken along with their helicopter in a renewed upsurge of violence in the troubled Delta. Ojediran said this was the first time the Opuama had seized Shell employees. Shell has reached “peace” agreements with some communities in the Delta that have been taking hostages and snatching the firm’s oil flow stations, locking in tens of thousands of barrels of oil per day of production. “Sometimes they want attention,” he said.