Nigerian gunmen have released a British toddler, days after she was kidnapped in the country's oil-rich south.
Margaret Hill, 3, has been reunited with her parents, state government spokesman Emmanuel Okah said on Sunday.
"She looks well and she is in very good spirits," he said as the child laughed in the background.
The toddler said by telephone that she was "fine" and happy to see her mother.
Her British father, Mike Hill, told Sky News by telephone on Sunday that no ransom was paid and attributed her release to pressure from Nigerian security services.
alive
"She's coming alive all the time ... She was in a bit of a trance when he first got her back," he said.
"I don't think she's had very much to eat because she's hungry now," he said. "She's covered in mosquito bites."
In Britain, Foreign Secretary David Miliband thanked those who worked to secure her release.
"I was delighted and relieved to hear of Margaret's release," he said.
"I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their help and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice," he said.
Gunmen seized Margaret while the car taking her to school idled in traffic on Thursday in Port Harcourt, an oil industry center.
Her Nigerian mother, Oluchi Hill, had previously said the abductors had contacted her and demanded an unspecified ransom for Margaret's release.
bread and water
Oluchi Hill had also said her daughter was being fed only bread and water, and that the gunmen threatened to kill the girl if the parents did not meet their demands -- including one that the father take his daughter's place.
Her father has lived in Nigeria for years and works in the energy industry. He also runs a popular nightspot in Port Harcourt.
It was the first abduction of a foreign child in the increasingly lawless oil region of Africa's biggest oil producer.
Margaret, whose driver was stabbed as he tried to shield her during the attack, is the third child to be seized in six weeks. The other two victims, both released unharmed after a few days in captivity, were the children of prominent Nigerian families.
foreigners
Kidnappings in the region have focused mostly on foreign, male workers of international companies presumed to have the resources for ransom payments.
More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped since Nigerian militants stepped up their activities against the oil industry in late 2005, and more than 100 expatriates have been seized this year alone as criminal gangs took up the practice.
Two hostages -- one British and one Nigerian -- died last year when government military patrols crossed the hostage takers' paths and a gunbattle ensued.
Hostage takers routinely issue threats over the welfare of their captives; however, no hostage has ever been seriously injured by kidnappers while in captivity.
More than a dozen foreigners are currently in captivity, including five seized on Wednesday from a Royal Dutch Shell oil rig.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS