Poland said on Tuesday it was "in contact" with the abductors of five Polish sailors kidnapped last week off southern Nigeria, a region known as a piracy hotspot.
The country's Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told reporters in Brussels that Warsaw had spoken to the abductors and that "negotiations continue".
Last Friday a group of armed assailants boarded a cargo ship and kidnapped five of the 16-man crew -- the captain, three officers and a crew member, according to Waszczykowski.
The rest of the crew locked themselves in the ship's engine room to escape capture, Polish media reported.
Asked about the state of the captives, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said at a press conference in the capital that "at the moment, all is well".
"The government is doing all that it can to ensure that the five men return safely to their families," Szydlo said.
The 113-metre Szafir, belonging to the Euroafrica Polish shipowner, was on its way to Nigerian oil hub Port Harcourt from Belgium.
Scores of kidnappings for ransom have occurred in the oil-rich Niger Delta, and most of the hostages have been freed after payment of a ransom.
Two Lithuanian and two Ukrainian sailors kidnapped from their ship in the same area last month were freed just two weeks ago.
But Lithuanian officials refused to say how the release was secured or whether a ransom had been paid for the men's safe return.
Poland said on Tuesday it was “in contact” with the abductors of five Polish sailors kidnapped last week off southern Nigeria, a region known as a piracy hotspot.
The country’s Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told reporters in Brussels that Warsaw had spoken to the abductors and that “negotiations continue”.
Last Friday a group of armed assailants boarded a cargo ship and kidnapped five of the 16-man crew — the captain, three officers and a crew member, according to Waszczykowski.
The rest of the crew locked themselves in the ship’s engine room to escape capture, Polish media reported.
Asked about the state of the captives, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said at a press conference in the capital that “at the moment, all is well”.
“The government is doing all that it can to ensure that the five men return safely to their families,” Szydlo said.
The 113-metre Szafir, belonging to the Euroafrica Polish shipowner, was on its way to Nigerian oil hub Port Harcourt from Belgium.
Scores of kidnappings for ransom have occurred in the oil-rich Niger Delta, and most of the hostages have been freed after payment of a ransom.
Two Lithuanian and two Ukrainian sailors kidnapped from their ship in the same area last month were freed just two weeks ago.
But Lithuanian officials refused to say how the release was secured or whether a ransom had been paid for the men’s safe return.
