Militants demand $1.5 mn for release of Russian sailors
By IANSWednesday, June 9, 2010
Moscow, June 9 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Nigerian militants are demanding a $1.5 million ransom for the release of two Russian sailors abducted from a ship at a Cameroon port last month, a media report said Wednesday.
The North Spirit vessel with a Russian-Ukrainian crew and owned by Greece’s Balthellas Chartering S.A., was attacked May 16 while anchored in Cameroon’s largest port of Douala, the Jour newspaper reported.
“The hostages will not be released until the ship owners pay $1.5 million,” the newspaper said, citing a local militant called Perewei.
The attackers, who are from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), are holding Russian captain Boris Tersintsev and chief engineer Igor Shumik hostage in Nigeria.
The newspaper also said the militants forced Tersintsev to get in touch with the ship’s owners and tell them how badly they are being treated.
According to the captain, they are being held in a mangrove forest without clean drinking water.
The MEND, one of the largest militant groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, has been linked to attacks on foreign-owned companies in the oil-rich but impoverished region.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
