Andrew Mwangura is a negotiator between pirates and ship owners off the coast of Africa. He directs the Seafarers' Assistance Programme... (wikipedia)
We do not know the exact location, but we suspect it was in northeastern Somalia.
First of all we need to know how much money do they want, and why are they demanding the money. They haven't asked for money.
Normally when they take captives, they want to get in contact with the chief owner.
According to our information, the owner agreed to pay $450,000 for all three vessels.
It was empty when it was seized but we have managed to contact the US navy in the Horn of Africa.
Insecurity off the Somali coast has escalated sharply. It is very worrying.
The captain managed to change the course of the vessel and speed away. Most of the passengers are believed to be Americans or Western Europeans. No one was hurt.
The captain made a distress call and later switched off the radio communication to avoid being traced by the hijackers. He told us that they were safe and were sailing to destination.