$1M Demand for Four Cruising Sailors - Child Sick
Associated Press reports that a Somali government minister says Somali gunmen have demanded $1 million for the release of a German couple, and confirmed that they are also holding their young son and a French boat captain.
'Somalia'
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The condition of the captives is not clear. A clan elder who is helping negotiate says the boy is suffering from a fever and needs medical help.
The Europeans were seized Monday from a yacht off the Gulf of Aden and taken to Puntland, a semiautonomous region of northern Somalia. Conflicting reports were emanating from the region as the pirates claimed they had only the German couple as hostages.
'The foreigners invaded our waters,' a spokesperson for the group said. It is believed that the kidnapping was an opportunistic action that involved both pirates and local fishermen.
Jama Hirsi Farah, minister of state for security in the region, said Thursday that the kidnappers have demanded $1 million. Troops from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland had found the yacht abandoned on the shore, but that by that point the kidnappers had taken their captives into the mountains.
Kidnappings and piracy are on the rise in Somalia, where hijackers demand - and often receive - huge ransoms. The 1,880-mile-long coast is overrun with pirates.
by AP/Sail-World 
Margaret River or Osborne Park (severne shop), WA
