There was a 20-member crew on the tanker, which has been operating in the West African zone for the past 60 days. A Singapore-registered oil tanker has been boarded by “unidentified persons” about 300 nautical miles (555km) off Ivory Coast in the Gulf of Guinea, the city-state’s port authority said.
“UNIDENTIFIED persons” boarded a Singapore-registered oil tanker at about 10pm Singapore time on Monday (Apr 10), about 300 nautical miles (555.6 kilometres) off the Abidjan Coast, Cote d’Ivoire in a “suspected unauthorised boarding” incident, the Maritime, and Port Authority (MPA) said in a Tuesday (Apr 11) media statement.
No further details were given, including the nationalities of the other crew members.
One Singaporean crew member was on board the vessel, named Success 9, with 19 other crew of various nationalities.
An Ivorian security source involved in the matter said a patrol boat had been sent out to rescue the tanker but was unable to locate it because its beacon had been turned off.
The MPA is working closely with the shipowner, HS Ocean; Monrovia Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre; and the Information Fusion Centre at the Changi Command and Control Centre to monitor the situation and assist.
The Gulf of Guinea has long been plagued by acts of piracy, as a key delivery route from Senegal to Angola over 5,700 km. Nigerian criminal gangs are behind most of the attacks.
Since 2021, however, pirates have been carrying out attacks further afield, in international waters, according to carriers.
Their violence and sophisticated techniques have encouraged companies in the sector to call for a larger foreign naval presence as the mission launched a decade ago to stem attacks by Somali pirates.
“It appears that serious attacks are increasing in the Gulf of Guinea. We hope that more international warships equipped with helicopter assets will be able to patrol the area,” Noel Choong of the Information Center on Security told AFP on Wednesday. piracy, emanating from the International Maritime Bureau.
In March, pirates seized a Danish tanker off the Congo, kidnapping six crew members before abandoning the ship.
