[DAWN] Nine Chinese and eight Ukrainian seamen were kidnapped in attacks on two merchant ships off Cameroon...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
, in the latest act of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, sources said on Friday.
The attacks took place on Thursday in Cameroonian waters off the port of Douala, located at the apex of a gulf that has become a hotspot of seaborne crime.
A Douala official said on Friday that a total of 17 people had been kidnapped, including "nine Chinese civilian sailors" from one of the ships.
A Cameroonian security official confirmed the account.
The Cameroonian navy and the country’s port service had reported the kidnappings on Thursday but had been unable to give the number or nationality of those taken.
A navy source said the kidnappers "are probably Nigerian pirates," adding that Cameroon’s security forces had launched a search for them.
The Gulf of Guinea, whose coastline stretches in a huge arc from Liberia to Gabon, is notorious for piracy as well as oil theft, illegal fishing and human and drugs trafficking.
In Malaysia, Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a watchdog agency, said the 17 seamen were seized from two ships that were attacked within hours of each other while they were anchored off Douala.
Choong said one of the ships was a multipurpose German-owned ship that flew the flag of Antigua and Barbuda.
"Eight crew were kidnapped from the ship, consisting of a total of 12 Asian and Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...an sailors," he said.
The other vessel was a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier managed in Greece with a Greek owner.
"There were 21 crew on board. All were Asians. Nine crew were taken," Choong told AFP.
"(The) IMB has issued a warning to all ships at Douala. We ask all ships to take additional precaution." Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement quoted by news agencies that three of the kidnapped sailors were Russian nationals. Many Ukrainians also hold Russian citizenship.
In recent years, the seas off West Africa have become "the world’s worst for pirate attacks," according to the IMB.