BEVERLY HILLS, January 25, (THEWILL) – Armed pirates on Saturday attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the Gulf of Guinea, on the West African coast.
One sailor was killed in the raid, an Azerbaijani citizen, while those kidnapped are from Turkey, Reuters reported on Sunday.
The Liberian-flagged M/V Mozart was on its way from Lagos in Nigeria to Cape Town, South Africa, when it was attacked on Saturday morning.
The crew were initially able to hide, but the pirates broke into their safe area after six hours. One crew member, an Azeri engineer and the only non-Turkish citizen in the group, was killed in the ensuing struggle.
The pirates exited the ship in the Gulf of Guinea, leaving only three sailors aboard, the report said.
After disabling most of the ship’s systems, the pirates left the remaining crew with only the navigation system to direct them to port.
Accounts from crew, family members and security sources described a sophisticated and well-orchestrated attack in which armed pirates boarded the ship and breached its protective citadel, possibly with explosives.
Turkish media reported that the vessel along with the crew was abducted at gunpoint.
“This incident is an exceptional incident for both its severity and distance from shore”, the maritime security consultancy Dryad Global said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara is in the process of coordinated negotiations to secure the release of the crew.
Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, spoke twice by phone with the ship’s fourth captain, Furkan Yaren, who remained aboard after the attack, he added.
The Turkish Anadolu agency cited Yaren as saying he had been “cruising blindly” toward Gabon with damage to the ship’s controls and only the radar working. The pirates beat crew members, and left him with an injured leg while another still aboard the ship had shrapnel wounds, he said.
The International Maritime Bureau has designated the Gulf of Guinea as the most dangerous sea for piracy.
Out of 135 sailors abducted globally last year, 130 were recorded in the Gulf of Guinea. That was the highest ever number of crew members kidnapped in the area.
In July 2019, 10 Turkish sailors were kidnapped off the coast of Nigeria and were released less than a month later.
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