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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
24 not 6 Pinoy seamen kidnapped in Nigeria
MANILA -- Gunmen have started negotiating for the release of 24 Filipino cargo ship crewmen taken hostage aboard a German cargo ship in Nigerian waters, a foreign affairs official said Tuesday.
The ship was near the Nigerian oil city of Warri when the gunmen took 17 sailors to a nearby village Saturday and forced the remaining sailors to stay on board, said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos.
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The government had initially said six sailors had been kidnapped.
Local Nigerian government officials had already identified a negotiator and talks were under way, Conejos said, adding that all the Filipinos were apparently "safe and sound."
The gunmen are from the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has been seeking the release of the movement's leader and two other men charged with treason, he said.
"We are getting a clearer picture of what happened. The ship has a 24-man all Filipino crew. They were moving to the Atlantic Ocean to the Niger Delta then armed men boarded the ship and took 17 Filipinos and brought them to a village in Wari," he said.
"Their ship is now lying in anchorage off the coast of Wari. There is one captain, a chief officer, engine officers, chief engineer, two cooks and the rest are ordinary seamen.
He said he was unaware of any specific demands from the group in the current negotiations.
"Both of our governments are dead set to resolve this incident peacefully," he said.
The ship, Baco-Liner 2, remained anchored off Warri under the gunmen's control, he said. Baco is Nigerian flagship but German-owned with an office in Hamburg.
The ships cooks have remained on board and are making food that is being taken to the hostages in the village, he said.
Klaus Steffen, manager at Baco-Liner GmbH of Duisburg, Germany, said his company had no contact with the ship's crew and could not confirm that only seven crewmembers remained on board.
"We have no contact directly with the ship because the entire crew must have been overpowered. I don't know how many people are on board now," he said.
Further details about the ship, its course and cargo were not immediately known.
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Tuesday advised Filipinos traveling to Nigeria to heed the ban on the temporary deployment to that country as well as to be wary of traveling to other parts of Africa where there maybe some incidents of unrest.
He said the ban on the deployment of Filipinos in Nigeria would be in effect until the Philippine government has decided that it is already safe to travel or allow the Filipinos to work there.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered on Monday following the kidnapping of several Filipino seafarers by Nigerian militants who hijacked their cargo ship while on its way to the port of Warri. (AP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (January 24, 2007 issue)
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