Nigeria
South African sound engineer releasedPosted Mar 12 2010
A South African journalist kidnapped last week has been freed after a week of being held captive.
Nick Greyling was kidnapped with two other Nigerian journalists. The kidnapping happened after gunmen, dressed as military officials, attacked a van with a crew of MultiChoice, a satellite television sports channel.
During the attack, the crew was filming a soccer match in Nigeria's Delta region where kidnappings and other acts of violence occur.
Punch, an online newspaper, reports that South African authorities negotiated the journalist's release. Another news organization The Richmark Sentinel also reports that Greyling is the second journalist kidnapped in that single attack, who has been freed.
A nearly 20-year tension between foreign oil corporations and some of Niger Delta's minority ethnic groups has created a great amount of violence, including kidnapping for ransom. This is done by militants who feel they are being left out of their fair share of Nigeria's oil wealth, the Richmark Sentinel reported.
For a short time, since 2009, according to the Richmark Sentinel, the number of kidnappings had decreased in Southern Nigeria. However, after the kidnapping of three British oil workers in January, kidnappings similar to Greyling's became more frequent. The three British oil workers were released after the kidnappers received the ransom.
According to Agence France de Press, security sources say a ransom of $100,000 or 67,000 naira was paid for Greyling's release. Nomfanelo Kota of South Africa's international relations department, released the following statement about Greyling's freedom to South African news agency Sapa.
“We would like to thank the Nigerian government for its co-operation and we wish the citizen well as he returns home.”
The fate of the other Nigerian journalist, commentator Bowie Attamah, is still unclear.