The French government was faced with a second attack by hostage-takers on its West African energy interests in less than a week, after pirates seized three French seamen off Nigeria just days after Al-Qaeda militants took five French nationals in neighboring Niger.
French oil-services company Bourbon SA confirmed that three of its employees, all French nationals, were kidnapped when attackers in several speedboats raided the Bourbon Alexandre, an anchor-handling tug supply vessel, or AHTS.
The French-flagged vessel was working in an offshore oil field operated by Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China's state-owned Sinopec Group. The ship's 13 other crew members "remained aboard, and no injuries were reported," Bourbon said.
Sinopec purchased Geneva-based exploration firm Addax last year for $7.2 billion. Addax has rights to explore five areas off Nigeria, but its main offshore wells lie in OML123, an oil production block about 60 km south of the city of Calabar at the far eastern edge of the Niger Delta.
"We are completely mobilized in Paris and Abuja to secure their release," said French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal, adding that Paris was in "constant contact with the Nigerian authorities, Bourbon officials and the families."
The attack on the Bourbon Alexandre came just 6 days after members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization captured five French nationals in Niger's uranium fields.
The hostages include an expatriate engineer from the mainly state-owned French nuclear firm Areva, his wife, and three employees of Areva subcontractor Satom, working in the firm's uranium mines around the town of Arlit.
Areva's three mining sites in Niger provide uranium that fuels a third of French electricity production, and since the attack all expatriate staff have been withdrawn from the area.
"The hostages are employees of the richest and most strategic firms in France. The kidnappers knew this. They know more about us than we know about them," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility in an audio message broadcast for kidnapping the French nationals who were last seen heading toward the neighboring countries of Mali and Algeria with about 30 captors before vanishing in the vast desert.
"The men were able to attack the mine of Arlit in Niger which is considered one the most important sources of uranium that France has been stealing from for decades," said the AQIM message that was broadcast over the Al-Jazeera news channel.
The AQIM message said fighters from the group overcame security in the area and kidnapped "five French nuclear experts" and said it would issue its demands to the French government "shortly." The group also warned the French government from "doing anything stupid."
In July, AQIM said it executed a 78-year-old French aid worker it had taken hostage three months before, saying the killing was in retaliation for the deaths of six al-Qaeda members in a French-backed military operation against the group.
Following that execution, Areva said it had stepped up security around its sites in Niger, where some 2,500 people are employed, including around 50 French citizens, in the operation of two huge uranium mines.
"We are increasingly limiting movement outside secure areas. We are working to make our staff aware of the risks, and paying more attention to any unusual situations or events," a spokeswoman told AFP.
However, Areva this week admitted that Niger officials had warned it about an armed group seeking to abduct foreign workers in the desert area where the five hostages were taken last week.
"We received the letter," a company spokesman told AFP, referring to a letter dated Sept. 1 and published on Le Monde newspaper's web site warning of the threat. The letter said the security situation in the Arlit region, where Areva runs its uranium mines, was deteriorating.
The letter said that on Aug. 23, Niger's defense forces chased off a group of armed men in a column of eight Toyotas, prevented them from carrying out a suspected plan to kidnap foreigners and seize military material.
The letter, addressed to Areva directors and the heads of other firms operating in the mining region, was signed by Captain Seydou Oumanou, who serves as Niger's senior official in the Arlit region.
Earlier this year, the US warned that al Qaeda's interest in nuclear weapons was still strong and said the risk of nuclear terrorism was serious.
"Al-Qaeda has been engaged in the effort to acquire a nuclear weapon for over 15 years, and its interest remains strong today," said John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top antiterrorism and homeland security advisor.
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