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uthorities in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia are expected to work together for the release of two Indonesian hostages, the latest victims of kidnapping at sea, reports said.

 The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, urged thousands of Indonesian sailors in Sabah, Malaysia, to avoid sailing until security improved, Antara reported Sunday.

Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir confirmed the kidnapping of two Indonesian nationals, La Utu bin La Raali and La Hadi bin La Adi, both from Buton regency in Southeast Sulawesi. “They are both Indonesian nationals working legally on a Malaysian fishing boat, but the kidnappers have not been identified,” he said.

Malaysian daily The Star quoted the Eastern Sabah Security commander Wan Bari Wan Abdul Khalid as saying that the Indonesians had been kidnapped on Saturday at around 11 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. in separate incidents 3 nautical miles (5.6 kilometers) apart in Kertam waters off Sabah.

“The Indonesian consulate offices in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau are coordinating in Sandakan [in Sabah] to gain more detailed information […] The consulate [officials] are coordinating with Malaysian authorities, boat owners and released crew members,” Arrmanatha said.

“This morning the foreign minister [Retno LP Marsudi] talked directly to the Malaysian foreign minister [Anifah Aman] to convey Indonesia’s concerns on the recurring abductions in Sabah waters. We have also asked the Malaysian government to help in the release [of the hostages],” Arrmanatha said. Some 6,000 Indonesians were working on Malaysian ships in the area, he added.

Minister Retno has also coordinated with authorities under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to coordinate release efforts.

Duterte is scheduled to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and tackling the Abu Sayyaf group is on the agenda, following several abductions by the group and its splinter cells in the Philippines.

Separately, Reuters on Monday quoted the Philippine military as saying that soldiers had found the body of a German woman on an abandoned yacht in waters off the southern Philippines and suspect her companion may have been taken captive by Islamist rebels of the Abu Sayyaf group.

The body was found naked and with gunshot wounds on the yacht, which bore a German flag and was docked on a remote island in the Sulu archipelago, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda linked group notorious for kidnapping and, increasingly, piracy.

Also Monday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Muammar Askali alias Abu Ramie, a self-proclaimed spokesperson of the group, as confirming the group had snatched two German tourists in Tawi-Tawi on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, the other one died. She tried to shoot us, so we shot her. She died,” Askali said in a brief phone conversation Sunday morning. Askali allowed their new captive to talk to the Inquirer.

The man introduced himself as Juegen Kantner, 70, and he identified his female companion only as Sabrina.

The Star quoted German media which reported that Kantner had been a captive before, when Somali pirates raided his yacht and held him and his wife in June 2008 in the Gulf of Aden for more than 50 days.

“Pirates took our boat and they took us. We [asked] the [German] embassy to help us,” Kantner told the Inquirer. A police report sent to the Inquirer said there had been a kidnapping at Pegasus Reef, around 40 nautical miles from Taganak Island in Tawi-Tawi.