This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/africa/6282846.stm
The article has changed 10 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 4 | Version 5 |
|---|---|
| Nigeria kidnappers free UK girl | Nigeria kidnappers free UK girl |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A three-year-old British girl has been freed by kidnappers in southern Nigeria after four days in captivity. | A three-year-old British girl has been freed by kidnappers in southern Nigeria after four days in captivity. |
| Margaret Hill has been reunited with her parents, Mike and Oluchi Hill, who said she was in good health but "covered in mosquito bites". | Margaret Hill has been reunited with her parents, Mike and Oluchi Hill, who said she was in good health but "covered in mosquito bites". |
| The kidnappers had threatened to kill the girl unless a ransom was paid or Briton Mr Hill took her place. He told Sky News that no ransom had been paid. | The kidnappers had threatened to kill the girl unless a ransom was paid or Briton Mr Hill took her place. He told Sky News that no ransom had been paid. |
| UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "delighted" at the release. | UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "delighted" at the release. |
| Mr Hill told Sky News that his daughter had returned "in a little bit of a trance", but soon began coming back to life and talking to her mother. | |
| The child had been held "in the bush... in some sort of hut", he said. | |
| I was trying to comfort my wife and she was waking up crying Mike Hill "I don't think she had much to eat because she is hungry now." | |
| Describing the couple's ordeal since their daughter's kidnap on Thursday, Mr Hill said: "The pressure is unbelievable, it's difficult to explain. You stop eating and can't think of anything else. You are just worrying all the time. | |
| "I was trying to comfort my wife and she was waking up crying." | |
| Mr Miliband said: "I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their help and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice." | |
| A Foreign Office spokesman said Margaret was due to have a check-up with a doctor on Monday morning. | |
| Immense pressure | Immense pressure |
| Margaret was snatched when gunmen smashed the window of a car driving her to school in Port Harcourt as it stood in traffic. | |
| The car's driver was stabbed as he tried to protect the girl. | |
| Her Nigerian mother, Oluchi Hill, later said the abductors had contacted her and demanded an unspecified ransom for Margaret's release. | |
| The kidnappers had vowed to kill the girl unless her father, a British expatriate oil worker originally from Murton in County Durham, took her place. | The kidnappers had vowed to kill the girl unless her father, a British expatriate oil worker originally from Murton in County Durham, took her place. |
| Mr Hill also runs a bar in Port Harcourt. | |
| Kidnapping has become the norm in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger delta region, the BBC's Alex Last says, but this time there was immense pressure on her captors. | Kidnapping has become the norm in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger delta region, the BBC's Alex Last says, but this time there was immense pressure on her captors. |
| The President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua, called for the girl's release, and the region's main militant group - the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) - offered to help find her. | The President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua, called for the girl's release, and the region's main militant group - the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) - offered to help find her. |
| Our correspondent says more than 200 hostages have been taken by armed groups in the last 18 months in Nigeria, but none has ever been killed. | Our correspondent says more than 200 hostages have been taken by armed groups in the last 18 months in Nigeria, but none has ever been killed. |
| Margaret was the third child to be kidnapped in the last six weeks. | |
| The daughter of a Nigerian businessman and a local state legislator's daughter were both eventually released unharmed after ransom payments. | The daughter of a Nigerian businessman and a local state legislator's daughter were both eventually released unharmed after ransom payments. |