LAGOS (AFP) — Nigerian militants on Sunday killed one sailor and kidnapped another when they hijacked a vessel belonging to the Nigerian unit of Italian oil company Agip, a military spokesman said.
"The vessel Fulmar Lamnaco was attacked at Sambriero river off Bonny in southern Rivers state," Lieutenant Colonel Musa Sagir told AFP. "One crew member was killed while another was taken hostage."
He could not disclose the names or nationalities of the victims.
Sagir said no group claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest to rock the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta in recent months.
Agip is a global subsidary of Italy's energy group Eni.
In the past three years the region has seen numerous kidnappings targeting foreign companies. They are claimed by armed groups who say they are fighting for a greater share of the oil wealth for the region's inhabitants.
On Saturday, unidentified gunmen kidnapped a community leader from his home in Kalaibiama-Opobo in Rivers state. His whereabouts are still unknown.
On August 2, gunmen seized two Frenchmen from a bar in Onne near the oil hub of Port Harcourt. They released on Friday.
Many armed groups collect ransoms in exchange for hostages.
Violence in the southern region has reduced Nigeria's oil production by a quarter since January 2006.
Nigeria was Africa's largest oil producer until it was overtaken in April by Angola, according to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
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