A plane with a pilot from New Zealand and five passengers on board was taken hostage by militants in the Indonesian province of West Papua. This was announced by New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on the radio station Radio New Zealand.
According to the Prime Minister, the staff of the New Zealand Embassy is now actively looking into this situation.
“They have not yet given us full information about what happened and what they are doing to resolve the situation, but we know that work is underway on this case,” Hipkins said on the air of the radio station.
The military wing of the separatist organization Movement for Free Papua, which is considered a terrorist structure in Indonesia, has already taken responsibility for what happened. They stressed that the pilot would be killed if the Indonesian government did not recognize the independence of the region.
Nothing is known about the fate of the passenger’s taken hostage.