A Russian sailor aboard the Arctic Sea ship that mysteriously disappeared in a purported pirate attack last summer has been abducted in Cameroon, a sailors union said.
A group of about 20 gunmen boarded the Greek-owned North Spirit vessel as it anchored in the port of Douala late Sunday and seized the sailor, Igor Shumik, and the ship's Russian captain, Boris Tersintsev, the Russian Professional Sailors Union said.
"The pirates disabled all radio and navigation equipment, took valuables, money and personal effects from the crew members' cabins and made captain Boris Tersintsev, a resident of Vladivostok, and senior mechanic Igor Shumik get into their boat at gunpoint," the union said in a statement.
"The men's whereabouts is still unknown," it said.
The ship, which had a Russian-Ukrainian crew, was flying the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and was managed by the Greek company Balthellas Chartering S.A., it said.
Shumik, born in 1963, was among the 15 sailors aboard the Arctic Sea, which disappeared for nearly a month last summer while carrying a $2 million shipment of timber from Finland to Algeria. Russian authorities say the ship was hijacked near Sweden by pirates seeking a ransom and have denied speculation that it was carrying a secret cargo of weapons.
The Russian Navy intercepted the Arctic Sea off the coast of western Africa and flew most of the sailors home.
The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it was keeping close contact with Cameroonian authorities about the two abducted sailors.
“No demands have as of yet come from the abductors about the terms for [the sailors'] release. The ship is still at the Douala port,” ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told Itar-Tass.
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