Nigerian gunmen kidnap 6 staff of Russian smelter

LAGOS, June 3 (Reuters) Nigerian gunmen kidnapped six foreigners and shot dead a local driver in a dawn attack on a residential compound of a Russian aluminium company in the southeastern town of Ikot Abasi, the firm said today.

The latest abductions take to 30 the number of foreigners being held by different armed groups in the lawless southern delta where the kidnapping of expatriates has become almost a daily occurrence.

A local official said the abducted men included three Russians and two South Africans, but the United Company RUSAL said their nationalities were being verified.

The men were working at the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), which is controlled by RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer.

''A group of militants attacked a residential community of UC RUSAL's employees. Six people have been kidnapped. The driver, who worked for ALSCON was shot dead,'' RUSAL spokeswoman Vera Kurochkina said in a statement.

Kurochkina said the company was taking steps to resolve the situation and free the hostages.

Security sources working for foreign firms in the southern delta said the militants blew up the apartment with explosives before kidnapping the six workers.

RUSAL acquired a 77.5 percent stake in the ailing ALSCON in 2005 and said in February it was working to restart the 193,000 tonnes a year smelter, located in Akwa Ibom state, by December.

Insecurity in the volatile delta region that accounts for all Nigeria's oil production has forced thousands of foreign workers to flee and cut output from the world's eighth biggest exporter by a third.

The identity of the kidnappers in Akwa Ibom state and their demands were not immediately known.

In neighbouring Rivers state, gunmen disguised as riot police kidnapped four foreign workers yesterday from the residential compound of oil services giant Schlumberger in the oil city of Port Harcourt.

The violence in the southern delta is fuelled by a complex set of factors including poverty, lack of basic infrastructure, corruption among government officials and security forces as well as political thuggery.

Some armed groups have taken hostages to press for jobs, contracts and social services for their neglected communities, while others have made political demands. But most kidnappings in the delta are motivated by the hefty ransoms paid by foreign companies and the regional authorities.

Hostages are almost always treated well and freed unharmed after some days in captivity, although a few have been killed by Nigerian troops in clumsy rescue attempts.

REUTERS ABM RK2038