12 workers kidnapped at Nigeria work site

updated 12:20 a.m. ET May 3, 2007

SEOUL, South Korea - An unidentified armed group kidnapped 12 workers — eight Filipinos, three South Koreans and a Nigerian — at a South Korean company’s power plant construction site in Nigeria on Thursday, the company said.

The armed group broke into accommodation facilities and drove the workers away in a stolen vehicle at 2 a.m. Thursday from Afam power station, about 20 miles northeast of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, said a statement from Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co.

Unrest has plagued Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta region for years, and in recent months armed militants have stepped up a campaign against the oil industry, blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping foreign workers.

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