Port Harcourt — The Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is demanding a $1.5 million ransom for the release of two Russian sailors abducted from a vessel at a port in Cameroon last month. The North Spirit vessel with a Russian-Ukrainian crew, flying the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and owned by Greece 's Balthellas Chartering S.A., was attacked on May 16 while anchored in Cameroon 's largest port of Douala.

"The hostages will not be released until the ship owners pay $1.5 million," a local militant called Perewei said.

MEND is holding Russia's Captain Boris Tersintsev and Chief Engineer Officer Igor Shumik hostage in Nigeria and has forced Tersintsev to get in touch with the ship's owners and tell them how badly they are being treated.

A source intimated our reporter that the captain communicated that they were being held in a mangrove forest without clean drinking water.