A Nigerian militant group may have been involved in the abduction of two Russian sailors in West Africa, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Two Russian seamen, including a former member of the Arctic Sea cargo vessel at the center of a hijacking saga last year, were abducted in Cameroon on May 16.
Andrei Nesterenko quoted Cameroonian law enforcement agencies as saying "militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta may have been involved in the abduction of the Russian sailors."
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, one of the largest militant groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, has been linked to attacks on foreign-owned companies in the oil-rich but impoverished region.
Nesterenko said Moscow was pursuing every avenue to locate the Russian nationals.
Alexander Bodnya, head of the Russian Sailors' Trade Union Baltic branch, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday the pirates who had seized the Russians had made no demands yet.
The North Spirit vessel, flying the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and owned by Greece's Balthellas Chartering S.A., was attacked by pirates on while anchored in Cameroon's largest port of Douala.
The attackers took captain Boris Tersintsev and chief engineering officer Igor Shumik hostage and left the ship.
Shumik was among the 15 crew members on the Arctic Sea cargo ship, which disappeared for more than three weeks last summer while carrying a $2 million shipment of timber from Finland to Algeria.
The ship's disappearance, which triggered a major international search effort, raised suspicions that it was carrying a "secret cargo" of drugs or weapons. Russian authorities have denied the rumors, saying the vessel was hijacked by criminals who demanded a ransom.
The Arctic Sea was intercepted by the Russian Navy off West Africa on August 16, 2009. Eight alleged hijackers from Estonia, Latvia and Russia were arrested.
MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti)
