A crew member of a cargo ship belonging to a Turkish company was killed and fifteen others were kidnapped by gunmen off the coast of Nigeria on Saturday, the Turkish state news agency reported.
According to Anadolu agency, 19 sailors were on board the Mozart, flying the Liberian flag, but belonging to a Turkish company, at the time of the attack.
A crew member, of Azerbaijani nationality, was killed by armed attackers who kidnapped fifteen other Turkish crew members.
After the departure of the attackers, the ship was able to continue on its way to Gabon with three of its members.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken by phone with the officer remaining on the ship and is following the case closely, the Turkish presidency said.
The ship was heading from Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria, to Cape Town, South Africa, at the time of the attack.
According to the Turkish news channel NTV, which was able to contact a sailor on board by phone, there are injured crew members.
“I don’t know where I’m headed. The pirates cut the cables, only the radar works, ”could be heard on a sound recording circulating on Twitter and attributed to the officer remaining on board.
Ten sailors from a Turkish ship kidnapped off Nigeria were released in August 2019.
The Gulf of Guinea, which borders Nigeria, has become in recent years the new epicenter of global piracy. Out of 135 sailors kidnapped worldwide in 2020, 130 were kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea, which is a record in this area, the International Maritime Bureau (BMI) said last week.