BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/05/2007

Abducted woman in Nigeria-Belarussian national

MOSCOW, May 6 (Itar-Tass) - The abducted woman in Nigeria is a Belarussian national, Itar-Tass learnt by phone from counsellor of the Russian diplomatic mission in Nigeria Viktor Goncharov.

"Staff members of the embassy managed to find out that the abducted woman is Belarussian citizen Irina Ekpo-Umo," the diplomat reported. "She married a Nigerian and has four children," he added.

Goncharov noted that "the Russian embassy in Nigeria is likely to be engaged in releasing her, since Belarus has no diplomatic mission in Nigeria".

According to an Itar-Tass dispatch from Minsk, the Belarussian Foreign Ministry reported that the abducted woman is called Irina, and she is on a consular record at one of Belarussian diplomatic missions. The Foreign Ministry now tries to find out from which town or village the woman departed for Nigeria.

Nigeria is Africa's first and the world's eighth oil exporter, producing 2.2 million barrels of oil daily. Gunmen, wishing to participate in the division of revenues from oil export stepped up hostage-taking in the recent past.

They took hostage 28 people in Nigeria over the recent past days.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11502319&PageNum=0

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