Negotiations launched with pirates capturing Russian sailors in Gulf of Guinea

The pirates who captured Russian sailors in the Gulf of Guinea on January 2 contacted the company that owns the captured ship, chairman of the Russian Union of Sailors Yury Sukhorukov said.

"Representatives of a pirate group contacted the company that owns the ship. Negotiations have been launched," Sukhorukov said.

"The captain was allowed to speak to the ship owner. He confirmed that everything is more or less fine, that people are held in more or less acceptable conditions," TASS cited him as saying.

Pirates attacked and captured MSC Mandy container ship sailing under Panama's flag at night on January 2 in Benin's territorial waters. Twenty-four people were on ship, six of them were captured. All of those captured are Russian citizens.