Talks on the release of two Russian crewmembers of the North Spirit vessel who were abducted at a Cameroon port are underway, the Russian Sailors Trade Union said Monday.
"The talks [between the owner and pirates] started on Saturday. We are not aware of the release demands at present," said Yury Sukhorukov, deputy chair of the trade union.
The North Spirit vessel with a Russian-Ukrainian crew, flying the flag of St. 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 Engineer Officer Igor Shumik hostage and left the ship.
The captors later allowed Tersintsev to get in touch with the vessel's owner. He told the owner he and Shumik had been taken to Nigeria.
Sukhorukov said the Russian ambassador to Nigeria had joined in the hostage negotiations with the pirates.
He added that both hostages were in good health.
"They are alive and are not in need of medical attention," the official said.
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 24 (RIA Novosti)
