Fifteen crew members of a tanker chartered by the Dutch oil company De Poli Tankers have been kidnapped off the coast of Benin in West Africa. These are people on board from Ukraine, Romania and the Philippines, the Barendrecht company reported on Friday.
The Poli Tankers did not disclose when the Maltese-flagged vessel was raided. Six crewmen were able to stay on board the Davide B and are doing well.
The fifteen kidnapped crew members are currently being searched. They are feared to have been taken to the West African coast and held until ransom is paid.
The tanker was raided about 390 kilometers south of Cotonou, Benin’s largest city. More and more raids or hijackings have been taking place in the Gulf of Guinea, on which Benin is located. The chief of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of the United Nations (UN), Kitack Lim, said last month that this calls for a better approach and more international cooperation.
In January of this year, fifteen crew members of a container ship from Turkey were already kidnapped. One person was killed in that kidnapping and the abductees were only released against payment of ransom after three weeks. They said they had been held in a forest and received repeated death threats. It is not known whether arrests were made.
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