Talks on the release of two Russian crewmembers of the North Spirit vessel who were abducted at a Cameroon port are planned for Saturday, the Russian Sailors Trade Union said Friday.
The North Spirit vessel with a Russian-Ukrainian crew, flying the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and owned by Greece's Balthellas Chartering S.A., was attacked by pirates on May 16 while anchored in Cameroon's largest port of Douala.
The attackers, suspected to be from the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, took captain Boris Tersintsev and chief engineering officer Igor Shumik hostage and left the ship.
The Russian Sailors Trade Union said Thursday the captors allowed Tersintsev to get in touch with the vessel's owner. He told the owner the he and Shumik had been taken to Nigeria.
Currently, the ship owner has concluded an agreement with specialists, who will negotiate with kidnappers on the conditions of the release of the sailors. It was planned that the negotiations could begin as early as today, but a spokeswoman said they will take place tomorrow instead, for reasons unknown.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, 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.
ST. PETERSBURG, May 21 (RIA Novosti)
