Toll rises to 12 dead in Nigerian oil delta attack

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Jan 16 (Reuters) Gunmen killed 12 people including four community chiefs in an attack on a commercial boat in the remote creeks of Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, police said today.

It was unclear what prompted the attack, which took place on Sunday when the boat carrying 14 passengers was on its way to the community of Kula in the coastal area of Rivers state, a maze of mangrove-lined creeks.

A police spokeswoman in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers, had said yesterday four chiefs were killed and eight other passengers kidnapped. She said today the latest information indicated all 12 had died in the attack.

''There are just two survivors who are being treated for bullet wounds in Port Harcourt,'' the spokeswoman said.

The attack did not fit the delta's usual pattern of militant raids on oil production facilities or kidnappings of oil workers for ransom. The police spokeswoman said a team was on its way to the area to investigate the killings.

The security situation in the delta worsened in 2006 and many fear it will deteriorate further in the build-up to the Nigerian elections scheduled for April as armed thugs sponsored by local politicians return to action.

The delta accounts for all oil production from Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest exporter, and poverty fuels militancy and crime in its riverine communities. A fifth of oil production capacity is shut down due to attacks last year.

A militant group fighting for local control over oil assets has been holding captive three Italians and one Lebanese employed by Italian oil firm Agip since December 7 in another part of the delta.

Five Chinese telecom workers are also being held hostage in Rivers state after they were kidnapped for ransom on Jan. 5.

Reuters BDP GC1256