The seven Russian citizens and a Ukranian who were reportedly attacked and abducted by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea 45 nautical miles south-west off Brass, Nigeria are alive and in good health, the Russian News Agency, TASS, has revealed.
The pirates first reportedly confronted guards on the ship before whisking away the sailors
News of their abduction was broken by TASS which said their general cargo ship, BBC Caribbean, was attacked near Pennington Oil Terminal at the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The ship is owned by a German company, Briese Schiffahrt, and the seven Russians are said to be crew members.
Russia is already in contact with the Nigerian government to help get the victims released.
TASS quotes a human rights person in Sevastopol, Pavel Butsai, as saying: “It is true that pirates in Nigeria have taken hostage seven Russians, including three from Sevastopol.
“They were on board the BBC Caribbean belonging to Briese Crewing Crimea, of Germany. The crew are well. There has been a message from the ship’s captain.
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“Negotiations on their release are in progress. All sailors have been allowed to phone home. They are safe and sound.”
It further reports the director of the German company, Captain Maksim Nester, as saying: “The kidnapped eight crew members of the ship have been taken to the jungle. The pirates have contacted us.
“The human rights ombudsman in Sevastopol, Pavel Butsai, has been very helpful. Currently task number one is to explain to the relatives that the company had been confronted with such situations before.
“There were such seizures in 2008 and 2010. After brief talks the crewmembers were invariably released then. None of the previous negotiations produced a bad outcome. One can say that the crew will return home soon.”
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According to the report, the ship was approached by a motor skiff with armed men on board, who immediately opened fire and got a confrontation from the guards on the ship.
A Twitter handle: @Rus_Eng_News further reports that: “In Nigeria pirates kidnapped seven Russians and the citizen of Ukraine.”
Another handle: @ruslantrad simply said: “#BREAKING: pirates took hostage 8 sailors from #Russia and #Ukraine in the territorial waters of #Nigeria.”
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