Lagos: Kidnappers freed six Russian sailors and an Estonian who had been abducted from a ship off Nigeria`s southern delta, a French oil and gas services company and the military said on Thursday.
Paris-based Bourbon SA said in a statement that the sailors were in good health despite facing "difficult conditions while in captivity."
The company said the men would leave Nigeria in several days after undergoing medical tests and psychological examinations.
The company statement said Bourbon would not take any questions regarding the sailors` release and did not say if a ransom had been paid to free them.
Typically, foreign companies operating in Nigeria`s Niger Delta pay cash ransoms to free their employees after negotiating down kidnappers` demands.
Foreign hostages can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.
Military spokesman Lt Col Onyema Nwachukwu said the hostages were freed yesterday night and were taken under guard to Port Harcourt, the major city in the Niger Delta.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said today that the six Russian sailors freed "feel well and are being provided with everything necessary."
The kidnapping happened during an attack October 15 on a Bourbon ship near the Niger Delta, where the company works closely with oil companies like Chinese-owned Addax Petroleum.
Gunmen apparently attacked the Bourbon Liberty 249 and seized the sailors before escaping, the company said.
Another nine sailors onboard the vessel sailed safely away to the company`s port in Onne in Nigeria`s Rivers state, the company said.
The attack occurred near the Pennington River off Bayelsa state, military officials later said.
That`s close to the Pennington Export Terminal run by US-based Chevron Corp, which loads crude onto large oil tankers for export to the West.
PTI
