Toddler kidnapped in Nigerian oil city
A three-year-old British girl has been kidnapped at gunpoint in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt, the country’s police said today.
The child, named as Margaret Hill, was snatched while waiting in a traffic jam as she was being driven to school, according to a police spokeswoman.
She said the girl was the daughter of a British expatriate oil worker, although the Foreign Office has yet to confirm this.
Kidnappings of foreign oil workers for ransom are very common in Port Harcourt, which is located in the oil-producing Niger delta in southern Nigeria. Abductions of children are rare, although the local media says it is the third case this year.
Since the start of 2006, about 200 adult expatriates have been kidnapped in the Niger delta. Most are released after a few days once a ransom has been paid, but armed groups are still holding 15 hostages.
Criminal gangs are behind most of the kidnappings, but a few of the abductions have been politically motivated.
Nigerian newspapers reported last month that a three-year-old child of a member of the Rivers state house of assembly was kidnapped and later handed back to the family unharmed in exchange for money. There were also reports earlier in the year of another child abduction for ransom.
