Pirates Kidnap 10 Turkish Sailors Off Nigeria Coast
Ten Turkish sailors who were on board a cargo ship off the Nigerian coast have been taken hostage by pirates.
The ship’s operator, Kadıoğlu Maritime, said the vessel, Paksoy-1, was sailing without freight between Cameroon and Ivory Coast when the pirates boarded.
The attackers damaged the vessel’s navigational equipment damaged before leaving with their hostages.
Eight other sailors managed to escape, sailing the ship to Ghanaian territorial waters.
Pirates operating from Nigeria have in the past demanded ransoms for the safe return of hostages.
The BBC’s Nigeria correspondent, Mayeni Jones, says that piracy has become common in the country over the past decade but there has been a decline in attacks in the last 12 months – from 22 in the first quarter of 2018 to 14 in the same period this year.
The International Maritime Bureau says this is due to an increase in Nigerian navy patrols but warns that Nigerian waters remain risky.