Gunmen threaten to kill French hostages

Updated 14.36 Fri Oct 31 2008

Keywords: vessel, hostage, oil

Gunmen in speedboats have seized ten mostly French crew members in an attack on an oil vessel off Cameroon.

A spokeswoman for oil services firm Bourbon said the kidnapped workers were among 15 employees on board the vessel Bourbon Sagitta when it was attacked early on Friday.

"If the Cameroon government does not respond to our requests in three days' time, we will start killing them one by one" - Colonel Ebi Dari, a Niger Delta Defence and Security Council commander

Two allied militia groups from Cameroon's Bakassi peninsula claimed responsibility and threatened to start killing the hostages if the Cameroonian government did not meet their demands within three days.

Colonel Ebi Dari, a Niger Delta Defence and Security Council commander: "I personally led the attack during which we seized ten men whom we are holding as I am talking to you now.

"If the Cameroon government does not respond to our requests in three days' time, we will start killing them one by one."

Dari did not detail his demands, but said Cameroon's government should contact the groups.

He said those kidnapped comprised seven French, two Cameroonians and a Senegalese, though Bourbon said there were only six French citizens along with one Tunisian worker.

Bakassi was handed over to Cameroon by Nigeria earlier this year after a decades-long border dispute.

Many Nigerian residents opposed the handover and militia groups similar to the well-armed gangs of Nigeria's nearby Niger Delta have sprung up.