COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Several members of the 16-man crew on a Liberia-flagged tanker are being held hostage by pirates who boarded the ship in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea last week, the Danish shipper that owns the vessel said Friday.
Pirates boarded the Monjasa Reformer southwest of Port Pointe-Noire, Congo, on March 25 and five days later, the French Navy that was patrolling the area, found the ship off the small island nation of Sao Tomé and Principe north of where it had been attacked.
In a statement, company spokesman Thorstein Andreasen said that “the pirates had abandoned the vessel and brought a part of the crew members with them.” It did not say how many had been kidnapped or how they were taken. The online shipping magazine Trade Winds said it was three crew members.
After the pirates had boarded the tanker, the crew sought refuge in a citadel — a safe area on the ship — in line with the onboard anti-piracy emergency protocol. However, the pirates somehow managed to take some of them hostage. The nationalities of the crew members has not been announced, nor were details given as to where they are being held or whether any were injured.