M’sian among 4 seamen held hostage by pirates
Posted on August 11, 2012, Saturday
JAKARTA: An Indonesian seaman, along with three other seamen from Malaysia, Thailand and Iran have been held hostage by armed Nigerian pirates since Saturday, Indonesia’s Antara news agency reported.
The president of the Indonesian Seamen Association (KPI), Hanafi Rustandi, in a press statement received here on Thursday, said they were taken hostage from “BG Jascon 33” barge early on Saturday local time while the boat flying St. Vincent flag was around 35 miles off the Nigerian coast.
The boat belonging to a Dutch company was carrying workers for an offshore oil drilling, when an armed group suddenly attacked and hijacked it.
Nigerian navy officers escorting the boat tried to fight them but two of them died after being shot by the pirates. The fate of the four seamen were still unknown.
He said the foreign ministry has ordered the Indonesian embassy in Nigeria to monitor the incident. “We have also made an inquiry at the Nigerian embassy in Jakarta concerning efforts that have been taken and latest developments but no answer has been given thus far,” Hanafi said. — Bernama
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