DAKAR (Reuters) - Two Russian sailors abducted from their ship off Cameroon are in good health and may have been taken by their captors to neighbouring Nigeria, according to the ship's owner and the Seafarers' Union of Russia (SUR).
Unidentified gunmen raided the Greek-owned cargo ship North Spirit on Sunday while it was at anchor off the port of Douala, taking the captain and chief engineer in an attack analysts say marks an expansion in the range of West African piracy.
The pirates also attacked a nearby Lithuanian vessel, Argo, seizing that ship's captain and robbing its safe.
"The (captain of the North Spirit) was allowed to make a call last night said he and his crew mate were alive and in good health," said Vadim Ivanov, spokesman for the SUR. "He said they had been taken by sea to Nigeria".
The raid is the latest in a string of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, a region stretching from the Guineas in the northwest to Angola in the south, that is an increasingly important source of oil to western markets. Link
