(Adds poor health in paragraphs 1, 4, 6) By Tume Ahemba LAGOS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A Lebanese employee of Italian oil company ENI <ENI.MI> who was kidnapped by militants in Nigeria was freed on Wednesday because of poor health after 11 weeks in captivity, authorities said. Two Italians, also working for ENI, are still in the hands of the kidnappers, who took them from the Brass crude oil export terminal in the southern state of Bayelsa on Dec. 7. "Let me give you a piece of good news that I have just received. One of the three hostages kidnapped in Nigeria has been freed," Paolo Scaroni, ENI's chief executive officer, told reporters in Rome. An oil industry security source said he was released for health reasons. Gunmen from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had originally snatched four ENI staff from the remote Brass terminal, but they released an Italian on Jan. 18 also because of poor health. Hostages in the delta often suffer from diarrhoea because of the poor quality of drinking water and malaria from the mosquitoes that are endemic in the tropical swamp. The latest release leaves eight foreign hostages in the hands of various armed groups in the vast wetlands region, home to Africa's largest oil industry, where attacks against foreigners have surged over the past 12 months. MEND, which emerged in late 2005, launched a wave of attacks on oil facilities and kidnappings of oil workers in February last year that stopped production of more than 500,000 barrels per day (bpd). The output, a fifth of the production from the world's eighth-biggest exporter of crude, remains shut. MEND says it is fighting for regional control over oil wealth in the Niger Delta, where five decades of oil extraction have yielded huge revenues for the Nigerian government and Western oil majors but few benefits for impoverished residents. Poverty fuels militancy and crime in the lawless creeks, which cover an area almost the size of England. In January, MEND said it seized a ransom of $545,000 sent by ENI to secure the release of the four hostages, but held onto the men. It had repeatedly warned the company it was not interested in cash. However, abductions of foreign oil workers have become an almost weekly occurrence in the Niger Delta, and most of them are motivated by ransom. Militants say local politicians are often involved in these schemes, among other criminal ventures including the commercial-scale theft of crude oil from the pipelines criss-crossing the remote region. (Additional reporting by Alberto Sisto and Silvia Aloisi in Rome)
