Seven crew members of South African, Filipino, Serbs and Cameroonians on a ship used by US oil giant ExxonMobil were kidnapped Wednesday by « pirates » off Equatorial Guinea, Malabo said Friday.
The abduction occurred in an area considered as the new epicenter of global maritime piracy.
ExxonMobil has warned authorities that the supply ship Warden, which it leases to oil service provider Swire, has been « the subject of a pirate attack » in the territorial waters of Malabo, the Equatorial Guinean Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. Hydrocarbons in a statement. « Out of 15 crew members, eight were hidden and seven were kidnapped, » according to the statement, which does not specify who the attackers were.
The vessel was leaving the Zafiro offshore oilfield, 12 nautical miles off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, and was attacked as it was heading towards Luba, a seaside town south of Bioko Island, in the eastern part of the island. of Equatorial Guinea.
The Gulf of Guinea, which extends from the coast of Senegal to those of Angola through those of Nigeria, on 5,700 km, has become in recent years a haven for pirates and the new epicenter of this type of attack, looting of ships and kidnappings against ransoms, ravishing the star at the Gulf of Aden.
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