6 African tanker crew members freed after being held hostage by pirates, 10 hostages remain

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Six crew members of a Liberian-flagged tanker held hostage for greater than a month by pirates in West Africa have been freed, the Danish transport firm that owns the vessel mentioned Monday.

On March 25, pirates boarded the Monjasa Reformer southwest of Port Pointe-Noire, Congo. The ship was discovered deserted 5 days later by a French navy patrol off the small island nation of Sao Tomé and Principe north of the place the assault came about.

The pirates left 10 of the 16 crew members on board, kidnapping the remaining six and taking them to shore in Nigeria.

PIRATES ATTACK SHIP AND HOLD CREW MEMBERS HOSTAGE OFF OF WEST AFRICA

In a press release, Monjasa firm spokesperson Thorstein Andreasen mentioned that the ordeal of the six crew members had ended Monday they usually had been “now safely recovered from an undisclosed location in Nigeria.”

All “are in a comparatively good well being situation given the troublesome circumstances they’ve been below within the final greater than 5 weeks,” Andreasen mentioned within the assertion. He added that that they had obtained medical checks and had been being repatriated to their dwelling nations to reunite with their households.

Port in Nigeria

Delivery operations are seen on a wharf of the Port Pointe-Noire within the Republic of Congo, on Dec. 16, 2019. Six of 16 hostages that had been crew members of a Liberian-flagged tanker ship had been freed by pirates in West Africa. The pirates boarded the tanker ship on the Port Level-Noire. (SAMIR TOUNSI/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

The Gulf of Guinea is among the world’s most harmful locations for assaults on ships. This hijacking came about additional south in an space that’s not usually attacked by pirates.

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Anders Ostergaard, the CEO of Monjasa, which is predicated in Fredericia, western Denmark, thanked those that had helped to “resolve this terrible scenario.”

After the pirates boarded the tanker, the crew sought refuge in a citadel — a protected space on the ship — in keeping with the on-board anti-piracy emergency protocol. Nonetheless, the pirates someway managed to take a few of them hostage.

The nationalities of the crew members haven’t been introduced, nor had been particulars given as to the place and the way they had been held.

No harm to the ship or its cargo has been reported. No additional particulars got.

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The Danish shipper mentioned that the episode “clearly demonstrates the necessity for joint worldwide political motion to face these points as soon as and for all” and “urges for protected passage routes and protected zones below an international coalition.”

The Monjasa Reformer is utilized in West Africa as a part of Monjasa’s world marine fuels operations. It was carrying marine fuel oil, very low sulphur gasoline oil and excessive sulphur gasoline oil merchandise on board, the shipper mentioned.

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