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Ten Turkish sailors have been held hostage by gunmen off the coast of Nigeria in what could be an abduction for ransom.
The shipping company Kadioglu Denizcilik said in a statement that the ship had been attacked by "pirates" as it was heading from Cameroon to Cote d Ivoire.
The Paksoy-1 cargo ship flying the Turkish flag was embarked in the Gulf of Guinea without any cargo on board, Kadioglu said Tuesday. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the sailors were seized on Saturday night.
The ship was carrying 18 crew members at the time – all Turkish citizens. The eThe last crew was rescued and taken to Ghana, the ministry said.
NTV private television reported that the pirates approached the ship on speedboats and seized the sailors. They have not had news since.
"According to initial reports, there were no injuries or injuries, and efforts to have our personnel released safely continue," the company said.
No other details about the incident were immediately available.
& # 39; The most dangerous & # 39;
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recently described the Gulf of Guinea as the most dangerous navigation zone in the world; 73% of all kidnappings at sea and 92% of the hostage taking took place there, the pirates taking normally sailors against ransom.
Armed pirates kidnapped 27 crew members during the first half of 2019. Of the nine ships targeted by gunfire around the world, eight were off the coast of Nigeria.
However, Nigeria reported 14 hacker attacks in the first quarter of 2019, compared to 22 in the same period in 2018.
An April report by the DGI attributed this decline to the increased efforts of the Nigerian Navy to "respond actively to reported incidents by sending patrol boats".
Omer Celik, spokesman for the ruling Turkish AKP party, told reporters that the Foreign Ministry and intelligence services were closely following the situation and had called for the release of the sailors.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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