2010-09-15 15:40

YAOUNDE -- A total of six foreign sailors instead of two were taken by unknown gunmen off the coast of Cameroon in the latest kidnapping in the Central African country, according to a Customs official.

Two sailors including one Filipino and Croat on board a ship were kidnapped on Sunday night off the port of Douala, Cameroon's economic capital, an army officer from Douala initially told Xinhua.

The two men were reportedly sailing in a dredging ship The Vespucci, which was flying a Luxembourg flag and chartered by a Belgian company Jan De Nul.

"The six sailors were kidnapped from two different ships," a Customs official from Douala told Xinhua on tuesday without giving details on the identity of the four other hostages.

He expressed surprise that such acts were happening close to the Douala port.

In the past years, kidnappings were frequently reported off the Bakassi peninsula, where authorities recently deployed a Rapid Response Unit (RRU) against organized crimes.

Security sources suspect the kidnappers to be Nigerian rebels from the Niger Delta region, who were held responsible for abducting two Russian sailors and one Ukranian along the same coastline.

No ransom demands have been made. The Cameroonian authorities have not yet released an official statement.

"If we say that they were Nigerian pirates, that will mean that the country has been invaded. This is because any time when the ship is within our waters, our military is supposed to be alert," the Customs official said.