The MTISC-GOG has received a report indicating that at about 2156 UTC on 11-April-2016 a container vessel chartered by CMA CGM has been attacked by pirates off Nigeria. Reports indicate that two crew members outside of the Citadel were suspected to have been kidnapped.
This is the second incident that occurred in the Gulf of Guinea on April 11.
World Maritime News reported to have received a confirmation on the attack from the ship’s manager, saying that the company managed to reestablish communication with the master on April 12th.
“The crew members were counted and all of them were found to be absolutely safe except for the 2nd officer and the electrician who were reported as missing. At this stage their whereabouts is not known and everything is being done, in conjunction with the appropriate authorities, the relative foreign ministries, and specialist advisers, to ascertain where they are. Up until now, there has been nothing to indicate that either of the men has been injured and we have every reason to believe that they are both alive,” a statement from Dioryx reads.
According to the ship’s latest AIS data, the 2009-built Liberia-flagged boxship is underway using engine in the Gulf of Guinea.
Investigations and searching of the vessel is being conducted by Nigerian Navy as of Tuesday, with other navy assets searching the area for the pirates and kidnapped crew.
This is the second incident that occurred on the same day in the region. Namely, a group of eight pirates attacked the Malta-flagged tanker MT Puli and kidnapped the vessel’s six crew members some 118 nautical miles off Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
The ship was en route from Douala port to Nigerian Abidjan port, when it was hijacked.
The pirates stole cash, ship’s properties, crew personal belongings and escaped with the kidnapped crew.
Investigations and searching of the vessel being conducted by Nigerian Navy as at 1200 LT on 12.04.16.
All vessels within the vicinity of this alert are advised to operate with a heightened level of security and encouraged to report any suspicious activity to info@mtiscgog.org
Source: MTISC
