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CRIME

Two Germans kidnapped in Nigeria

Germany’s government said Monday it believed two of its citizens were abducted in Nigeria and said that diplomats were working to secure their release.

Published: 19 April 2010 08:28 CEST
Updated: 19 April 2010 13:32 CEST
Two Germans kidnapped in Nigeria
A file photo of an oil field in Nigeria. Photo: DPA

“We must assume at this point that two German citizens were kidnapped Sunday night in southern Nigeria, in the Niger Delta,” foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told a government news conference.

“The foreign ministry and our experts on the ground are in contact with the responsible authorities in Nigeria. We are trying everything possible, with these authorities, to resolve this case as soon as possible.”

He declined to provide further details in the interest of the hostages’ safety.

A security source in Lagos said the two German men, aged 45 and 55, were kidnapped Sunday after an outing at a beach in oil-producing Abia State in the southeast of the country.

One works in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, while the other came from Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, the source said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

Hundreds of foreigners and locals, mostly oil workers – have been kidnapped since 2006 in Nigeria, mostly in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Many have been released unharmed, but some only after ransom payments.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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