About 20 Nigerians working for a contractor to Royal Dutch Shell were abducted during a Monday attack on a convoy of boats supplying oilfields, Shell sources said on Tuesday. At least five soldiers protecting the convoy were killed when about 70 gunmen in speed boats attacked the barges carrying fuel and other supplies to Shell facilities in the remote Cawthorne Channel in the Rivers state of the Niger Delta.
“There is still confusion over what has happened. About 20 Nigerian oil workers who work for a Shell contractor were abducted. As of now they are still missing,” said one Shell source in the Rivers state capital, Port Harcourt.