Oil workers released in Nigeria

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Two oil workers, from the UK and the US, have been released five days after being taken hostage off the Nigerian coast, a local official has said.

"They were released this morning in [state capital] Yenagoa. They were safe and sound," said Bayelsa State spokesman Ekiyor Conrad Welson.

Martin Maddieson and US citizen Jim Brazel were seized from a ship off the coast of Bayelsa State.

It was the latest attack by militants demanding more oil money for locals.

Attacks common

Hostage-taking has become a lucrative business for armed groups in the region - an area of creeks and swamps about the size of Scotland.

BBC Correspondent Alex Last in Lagos said a number of different armed groups have taken hostages in the last few months.

Almost all have demanded ransoms for their release, sometimes in the form of compensation deals for local communities who feel short-changed by the oil companies operating in their area.

He said: "Militancy has been on the rise in the Niger Delta. At its root is local anger at widespread poverty and pollution of their environment by the oil industry.

"Out of this armed groups have sprung up, some criminal, some more political - often the line is blurred."

He added that, with elections approaching next year, many fear the violence is going to get worse.

In October four British oil workers were seized and later released after gunmen raided a residential compound housing expatriate staff.

The latest kidnappings come despite Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo's promise in September to take strong action to curb the armed groups.