Navy Launches Search for 11 kidnapped Crew of Container Ship

Agency Report/

 

The Nigerian Navy has launched a search and rescue operation for 11 crew kidnapped on a container ship, MV Pomerania Sky, off the shores of Lagos, Nigeria.

The men were reportedly kidnapped in the attack by pirates, says a Navy spokesman who promised to provide an update soon.

Pirates boarded the container ship off the coast of Nigeria, seizing the 11 crew including eight from Poland, the vessel’s management firm and Polish state media reported.

The attackers struck the MV Pomerania Sky, bound for the Nigerian port of Onne, early on Saturday and abducted 11 of the crew, Midocean (IOM) Ltd says in a statement on Sunday. The firm added that nine others remained on board and were unharmed.

“Our priority is securing the earliest release of the 11 crew who have been taken and we are working closely with our partners and the local authorities to achieve that,” Midocean said.

“The families of those crew members taken are being kept informed of the situation,” said the company, adding that the vessel had proceeded to safe waters.

Midocean declined to say where the kidnapped crew members were from, but Polish state media, citing Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, said eight of them were from Poland.

The nationality of the three other abducted crew members was not immediately clear.

Kidnappings and piracy in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea are common.

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