A three-year-old girl has been abducted in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt.
The child, who is thought to be the daughter of a British businessman, was snatched from a car while she was being driven to school.
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.
Initial reports suggest the child has a British father and Nigerian mother, although this has not been confirmed.
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.
Authorities frequently deplore the 'commercialisation' of kidnappings but local human rights activists say some corrupt politicians get a cut of the profits.
When the current wave of kidnappings started in early 2006, most people targeted were oil workers, but armed groups have become more and more indiscriminate, seizing workers from the construction and telecom industries as well as small business owners.
Today's abduction is the third involving children this year.
