Israeli kidnapped in Nigeria ransomed by employer
Man in his 70s who was held for 5 days says he was mostly treated well by armed gang and only beaten twice
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A Israeli man in his seventies was released for ransom after he was held by an armed gang for five days in the Nigerian jungle.
The unnamed man, who was working as a consultant for a Nigerian corporation as an infrastructure adviser, said that his captors treated him fine — giving him food and medication — but beat him twice, the news site Ynet reported Sunday.
The deal for his release was brokered between the man’s employer and his kidnappers with the assistance of officials at the Israeli embassy in the capital, Abuja.
He was released unharmed and has since left the country.
The company was alerted to the man’s disappearance after he failed to board a flight from the seaside city of Lagos. The kidnappers contacted his employers several hours after the abduction and initially demanded a ransom of half a million dollars.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry monitored the negotiations and kept the man’s worried family continuously informed.
It wasn’t initially clear what sum was paid to free the man following days of negotiations.
Kidnappings of Western businesspeople and tourists in Nigeria are fairly common. An American woman working as a missionary was released Friday after she was held by masked gunmen in the country’s central region for two weeks.
The incident comes amid reports that terror organization Boko Haram, which on Saturday pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, has seized large swaths of northeastern Nigeria and parts of Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon.
In November 2010, a similar incident involving the kidnapping of an Israeli businessman in Nigeria ended with the man freed unharmed after a ransom was paid.
Marissa Newman contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.