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Kidnappers say sailors seized off Cameroon coast are alive — seafarers union

"They haven’t decided on the ransom amount yet," the interlocutor stated

© AP Photo/Frank Augstein

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. The owner of the MarMalaita cargo vessel whose crew members were kidnapped off Cameroon coast has received a message from the kidnappers saying that the sailors are alive and well, a spokesperson for the Russian Seafarers Union told TASS on Tuesday.

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"The kidnappers have contacted the ship owner and said that the sailors are alive and well," he said, adding that the kidnappers wanted the ship owner to send clothes suitable for hot weather that the sailors could wear, as well as medicines for the prevention of malaria and other diseases.

"They haven’t decided on the ransom amount yet," the Russian Seafarers Union spokesperson said.

Unknown perpetrators, believed to be Nigerian pirates, attacked the MarMalaita vessel while it was anchored off Douala, Cameroon, on August 14. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the attackers had kidnapped eight crew members, including three Russian nationals.

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