German hostage freed unharmed in Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Aug 19 (Reuters) A German oil worker taken hostage in Nigeria was freed overnight unharmed after two weeks in captivity, a state government spokesman said today.

The release of Guido Schiffarth was unconnected to a military raid, also yesterday night, on a suspected militant hideout on the outskirts of Port Harcourt, the largest city in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, authorities said.

''I was well treated and respected,'' Schiffarth was quoted as saying by a spokesman for the Rivers State government.

The 62-year-old employee of Bilfinger and Berger was snatched from his car by men disguised as soldiers in Port Harcourt on Aug.

3, one of six separate abductions in Africa's top oil producer this month.

There are now seven foreign workers in captivity -- two Britons, an American, a German, a Pole, an Irish and a Lebanese -- while 10 have been released.

Nobody was killed in yesterday's raid in Port Harcourt, but several people were arrested and several others were beaten as troops and police combed the riverside slum area of Ilabuchi and Eagle Island.

''The soldiers came looking for the bad boys,'' said a resident who gave his name as Adolphus. ''They have been using this area to terrorise Port Harcourt.'' There were still more than 100 soldiers and police in the area today, backed up by helicopter gunships overhead and four navy gunboats on the creek.

''The soldiers were shooting in the air. They also molested people, asked some young men to remove clothes and lie on the wet ground. They flogged them with canes and the back of machetes,'' Adolphus added.

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