Pirates attack Dutch ship off West Africa

Pirates have attacked a Dutch tanker in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, the shipping company said on Friday.

Fifteen crew members were kidnapped, a spokesperson for De Poli Ship management said in Barendrecht near Rotterdam. Six other sailors were safe and unharmed on the ship. So far, there has been no contact with the hijackers.

According to the shipping company, the chemical tanker Davide B. was attacked on Wednesday. At the time, the ship was sailing about 200 nautical miles off the coast of Benin.

De Poli Ship management was very concerned, the spokesman said. “The company’s top priority now is to make contact with the missing crew to get them safely released as soon as possible.”

He said the company was in close contact with the authorities concerned and the sailors’ relatives. Security forces are now on board the tanker. It was on its way from Riga in Latvia to Lagos in Nigeria. The ship sails under the flag of Malta.

Source: GNA