Smash hit

The Foreign Office yesterday called for the "immediate safe release" of the girl. "We do not know who took her. We are in contact with her parents and are providing assistance," a spokeswoman said.

"High Commission officials are in contact with the Nigerian authorities. We call for her immediate safe release."

The British High Commission in Nigeria said it was unclear who was behind the kidnapping, but added that criminal gangs were usually to blame.

"This is entrepreneurial kidnapping of the type you used to see in Colombia or Mexico. The girl will not be in serious danger, but it is a very disturbing new game in town," an expatriate resident in the city said.

Militant groups, often linked to criminal gangs demanding a bigger share of the deeply impoverished region’s enormous oil wealth, began kidnapping foreign oil workers and attacking oil installations about 18 months ago.

Since then abductions have become an almost weekly occurrence in the south of the country, where many foreign oil workers are based. More than a dozen foreigners are currently in captivity and more than 200 have been taken since the end of 2005.

Hostages are generally released unharmed after a ransom is paid - often by governments that control huge, unregulated security slush funds.

But despite the increasing kidnappings, the targeting of women and children is uncommon, with attackers generally focusing on male employees of large oil companies.

The High Commission said the fact that such a young child was involved in a kidnapping signalled a worsening of the situation.

The Foreign Office’s own advice warns against all travel to the Niger Delta including Port Harcourt because of the "very high risk" of kidnapping, armed robbery and other armed attacks.

Margaret’s abduction brings the total number of expatriate workers kidnapped in the Niger Delta this year to 150 - 20 of those have been British.

The main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, called off a month-long truce this week. It said that it was fed up with the slow pace of negotiations with the new Government of President Yar’Adua, who was elected in disputed polls last April. He has pledged to bring peace back to the region, but many militants are angry that the Government’s tactics appear simply to be an attempt to buy off the ringleaders.

Chris Newsom, of the local StakeHolders’ Democracy Network, said: "The whole problem is that the Government is just not getting how serious the situation now is in the Delta. They are making a lot of noise but it is not getting quality attention. As a result, violence here is often rewarded."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has advised Britons to leave the Niger Delta because of the "very high risk" of kidnapping, armed robbery and other armed attacks.

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president