SERUDONG 3

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Two crew members who had been held hostage found adrift in boat

Two Malaysian crew members of the "Suodong 3" who had been held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf Group for eight months were found aboard a boat adrift off the southern Philippines on March 23, 2017. Tayudin Anjut, 45, and Abdurahim bin Sumas, 62, were abandoned by the Abu Sayyaf gunmen before dawn near their coastal forest hideout on the remote island of Pata. They were saved weak and in a sickly state and receiving treatment at a military hospital. A Philippine Navy patrol boat found the pair, eight months after they were abducted along with three other crewmen of a tugboat that was boarded by gunmen near the sea border between the two countries. Their recovery followed a Philippine military operation against the kidnappers on a nearby island early in February that left eight gunmen dead.

Families of kidnapped sailors miss ransom deadline

The families of five Malaysian sailors kidnapped in July and apparently being held by Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants in the Philippines are in limbo some two weeks after failing to meet the militants’ ransom demand. Gustiah Sultan, a 46-year-old housewife who has acted as a spokeswoman for the sailors’ families, said she hoped for the best despite missing an Oct 16 deadline to come up with a ransom of U.S. $480,000. She said kidnappers threatened to behead the hostages if the families failed to come up with the money. On July 18, suspected ASG members kidnapped five crew members from the "Serudong 3" during a hijacking at sea off the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. The five men are Abd Rahim Summas, 62; Tayudin Anjut,45, Fandy Bakran, 26; Mohamad Jumadil Rahim, 23; and Mohd Ridzuan Ismail, 32. Ridzuan is from Felda Jengka 7, a palm oil settlement in Pahang state in peninsular Malaysia, while the other four are from Lahad Datu in Sabah. Khalid Abu Bakar, the chief of Malaysian police, and Wan Abdul Bari Abdul Khalid, who heads the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM), had no updates on the kidnappings. Abdul Rashid Harun, the police commissioner in Sabah, declined comment. In July Tayudin had contacted his employer about a ransom of $4.76 million. Tayudin told his boss that the men were in good condition and were in Basilan, a province in the far southern Philippines. In September, Gustiah served as a spokeswoman when the families sought permission from police to ask the public for donations to pay ASG’s ransom demand. This time, she said the kidnappers had demanded $2 Million. The most recent ransom demand came on Oct. 12. Gustiah was able to speak to her husband during the phone call and intelligence officers determined that the call came from ASG. She said her husband told her that his fellow hostages were mostly well, but surviving on little food and water.