Gunmen kidnapped a three-year-old British girl in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt while she was on her way to school on Thursday morning, police said. A police spokeswoman said the child was snatched from the car in which she was being driven as it was stuck in traffic. The British Foreign Office confirmed the abduction.
"A three-year old British child, Margaret Hill, was abducted in Port Harcourt this morning. We do not know who took her," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. "We're in contact with her parents and are providing assistance. High Commission officials are in contact with Nigerian authorities. We call for her immediate and safe release," she said.
Kidnappings for ransom are very common in Port Harcourt, located in the oil-producing Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, although abductions of children are rare. Hostages are nearly always released unharmed. About 200 adult expatriates have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta since the start of 2006 and 15 are still being held by various armed groups. Most abductions are for ransom although a few have been politically motivated.
Several armed groups in the Niger Delta are campaigning for "resource control" or the right of impoverished local communities to gain greater control over oil revenues from their lands. These groups have sometimes kidnapped oil workers in the name of the struggle for resource control.