A container ship owned by A.P. Moller-Maersk has been attacked off the coast of West Africa, in waters described as Nigerian.
The Maersk Cadiz was boarded by “criminals” on Saturday at about 2:30 p.m Nigeria time while traveling from Tema in Ghana to Kribi in Cameroon, Maersk said in a statement.
Nigerian naval ships reportedly responded immediately to help the vessel, which has capacity to transport the equivalent of as many as 4,500 twenty-foot containers. The ship was carrying cargo when attacked.
All 21 crew have been confirmed as safe, and the vessel has been secured, a Maersk spokeswoman said.
The West African coast overtook Southeast Asia last year as the worst area for reported piracy and kidnappings at sea, with the number of seafarers seized rising by more than 50%,
Despite a global decline in piracy in 2019, attacks have continued in the Gulf of Guinea this year, especially off Nigeria’s coast.
“We are very concerned about the increased security risk from armed attacks on merchant vessels in the area,” Maersk Chief Technical Officer Palle Laursen said in a statement. “The risk has reached a level where local governments and the international community must take action to deal effectively with an unacceptable situation.”
The Maersk Cadiz was built in 2013 and sails under the Singaporean flag.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also on Saturday confirmed that six of its nationals were among the crew abducted off the coast of Nigeria, from a Cameroon-flagged STEVIA cargo ship.
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oleg Nikolenko, as quoted by the Ukrinform news agency, said the pirates had attacked the vessel in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa’s most economically active and oil-rich region.
He confirmed that the pirates captured eight members of the crew, 28 nautical miles (51.8 kilometers) off the coast of Nigeria.
“Yes, we are aware of this situation. As a result of a pirate attack on the ship off the coast of Nigeria on December16, eight crew members were captured, including six Ukrainian citizens,” Nikolenko said.
According to the diplomat, the owner of the STEVIA cargo ship is an Albanian company, so both the Ukrainian embassy in Nigeria and Albania were taking appropriate response measures.
The daughter of one of the captured sailors, on Saturday, also said that there were six Ukrainians aboard the vessel.
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