The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane confirmed on Monday that two people taken hostage from a yacht off the Somali coastline were South African citizens.
“[She] confirmed this afternoon that two South African citizens were abducted by suspected Somali pirates from a yacht at a location in the Indian Ocean,” departmental spokesperson Saul Kgomotso Molobi said in a statement.
The reaction came after reports that a man, who was with a woman and a child on a yacht, was killed by Somali pirates on Sunday.
“A third South African is currently under the protection of officials of the South African High Commission in Nairobi.”
The man reportedly escaped capture by pirates after he refused to cooperate with them on Sunday.
South African hostage was not shot
The department denied that the man who was shot dead on Sunday after he refused to disembark from a hijacked yacht was South African.
“There were three South Africans who were abducted,” said Molobi.
The man was reportedly killed in Barawe town on the southern Somalia coastline by pirates who had taken him hostage and wanted him to go onshore from his yacht in which he was sailing with others, including a woman and a boy.
The report quoted Andrew Mwangura, head of East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, confirming the yacht was anchored off Somalia’s coastline near Barawe.
He said his organisation was investigating reports of a possible hijacking of the sailors, believed to be tourists.
“What I know is there was a yacht spotted by local people in southern Somalia, and we are trying to investigate reports of hostages and to verify their nationality,” Mwangura told Reuters.
The agency also quoted an al-Shabaab (an al-Qeda-linked rebel group which controls Barawe) rebel spokesperson saying a South African hostage was killed. — Sapa