After the attack, the kidnapping. Six sailors from a Danish tanker attacked last weekend in the Gulf of Guinea have been kidnapped by pirates, the French navy announced on Friday, after finding and rescuing the ship off Sao Tome and Principe.
The Monjasa Reformer, which flies the Liberian flag, was attacked on Saturday evening by a pirate boat when it was 140 nautical miles off the Congolese port of Pointe-Noire, and contact was lost shortly afterwards with the crew.
The ship was finally spotted Thursday “early afternoon” by a drone from the French high seas patrol boat Premier-Maître L’Her, deployed by Paris as part of its Corymbe anti-piracy mission, the ministry for the armies said. in a press release. The pirates’ boat, which was alongside the tanker during a first overflight, disappeared during a second pass. Of the ten sailors still on the Monjasa Reformer, three slightly injured are being treated by a military doctor.
The kidnapped sailors are not Danish
The nationalities of the kidnapped sailors are not known but they are not Danish, according to media in the Nordic country. “Our hearts go out to the crew members still missing and their families at this stressful time,” Monjasa said in a statement, adding “to work closely with local authorities” to secure the sailors’ return.
According to the Congolese authorities joined Tuesday by AFP, the attack was committed by three men. But according to the Franco-British MDAT-GoG (Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade Gulf of Guinea) mission and the French navy, it was five pirates who carried out the attack.
Crucial maritime route bordering countries rich in hydrocarbons, the Gulf of Guinea, which extends over 5,700 kilometers between Senegal and Angola, was for several years the new black spot of world piracy.