The 52-years old Bulgarian engineer who was kidnapped in Nigeria on November 20 2008 was released in good condition, Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted Bulgarian Foreign Ministry on December 2 2008. The Bulgarian national had been kidnapped by unknown individuals.

According to Bulgarian private broadcaster Darik Radio, the Bulgarian national was in police custody outside Nigerian capital Abuja and was going to meet Bulgarian diplomats within days. No information about the actual release of the kidnapped Bulgarian have been given.

As The Sofia Echo reported earlier, the kidnappers asked for $4.2 million in ransom. A Nigerian intelligence services source was quoted by Reuters news agency said at the time that the Bulgarian was attacked in the city of Aba and was forcefully pulled out of the car he was travelling in.

The Bulgarian national is an engineer and is employed by a foreign company that is hired as a subcontractor in the country. It was company colleagues that tipped-off the Bulgarian embassy in Abuja about the kidnapping.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry has repeatedly advised Bulgarian citizens to refrain from traveling to Nigeria, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said. In June, another Bulgarian national was kidnapped in Nigeria and was released a month later.

In November, a Bulgarian woman and three French nationals, who were on a charity mission in central Somalia, were kidnapped. Their fate so far remains unknown and it could be months before negotiations result in them being freed, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dragovest Goranov said on December 2, adding that the latest indications were that the aid workers were alive.