Cirilo Nebit is a very fortunate man indeed.

Held with 23 fellow seamen for more than three weeks in the Niger Delta, by masked gunmen, he is now back home in the Philippines, reflecting on what a surreal month this has been for him. I met him just after he’d been reunited with his anxious family, at the Malacanang Palace in Manila. He’d been invited with his wife and four sons to a special homecoming dinner with the Filipino President Gloria Arroyo. There, the men finally relaxed with their loved ones and chatted about their brush with death in the heart of Africa.

Fifty-three-year-old Cirilo has worked on ships of all types for more than 30 years. His voyage on the Baco Liner II started prosaically enough from Belgium, but it was when they were off the coast of Nigeria that suddenly things changed for the worse. Cirilo, the second engineer, was below deck, when he heard on the radio that armed men were approaching the ship. “They blocked our path with 12 speed boats” he says.

He describes how the gunmen were wearing few clothes, but were heavily armed with machine guns, assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade, as they stormed the ship and forced the captain to weigh anchor. Cirilo says he was terrified and thought it would be “his last day.” The men were taken off in speed boats to the rebel camp in the swamps of the Niger Delta. Cirilo says the men claimed to be from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta or MEND. He says they were well looked after.

When asked what they did for the long three weeks they were held, Cirilo replies: “We just stayed inside, read some books, played cards and watched television."He says the gunmen promised they weren’t killers and said the sailors would be released after only a few hours. But it soon became clear that the men would be held for longer.

The seamen shared their food with the gunmen and were unharmed. Cirilo says the rebels stole some of the ship’s cargo, including explosives and even 900 tonne barges that were kept within the superstructure of the massive vessel. Cirilo says he knows nothing of the negotiations which led to their release and doesn’t know whether any ransom was paid. His family had been waiting anxiously for news in Manila and watched CNN Correspondent Jeff Koinange’s reports from the camp showing the hostages. Melinda Nebit, Cirilo’s wife, says even their three-year-old son Dax watched and was soon declaring that his father had been “kidnapped by militants.” Now the entire family has met the president of the Philippines, have appeared on TV and are quite the talk of the neighborhood.

It’s difficult getting back to normal life, after such an extraordinary month. But Cirilo is clearly traumatized by his experience saying: “Every time I remember this happened to me … to us … sometimes I cry.”

From Dan Rivers, CNN International Correspondent

Posted by In The Field Online Producers: 2:42 AM

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