Posted by AFP on
Five Filipino seamen kidnapped in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta earlier this month have been released by their captors, an official said Monday.
MANILA (AFP) - Five Filipino seamen kidnapped in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta earlier this month have been released by their captors, an official said Monday.
Gunmen had boarded their vessel, the MV Aveiro, in the waters of Bonny and seized them at gunpoint on October 4, the official said.
The sailors are "well and unharmed," said Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos.
"They are now in the care of the team from the Philippine embassy in Abuja dispatched to secure their safe release," Conejos said in a statement.
"The Philippine government expresses its gratitude to the Nigerian government for the speedy resolution of this case," he said.
He did not give details as to how the five were freed.
Security sources initially said that six captives had been taken.
The Philippines supplies a third of the world's seafarers and dozens of other Filipino crewmen remain captive by pirates off Somalia's coast.