This archive report was first published on 23 December 2019.
On December 23, 2019, pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea took a deadly turn, with a Gabonese captain killed and four Chinese sailors abducted.
The attacks, which occurred in the harbour of Gabon's capital, are unusual in the area but have become a common occurrence in the surrounding Gulf of Guinea.
According to government spokesman Edgard Anicet Mboumbou Miyakou, the West African country's defence and security forces were deployed to secure the area and track down the perpetrators with the cooperation of Interpol and sub-regional bodies.
Two of the ships targeted were fishing vessels belonging to Sigapeche, a Sino-Gabonese company that employs the four Chinese sailors.
The third ship belongs to the maritime transport company Satram, based in Port Gentil, Gabon, while the fourth is a cargo vessel flying a Panamanian flag.
The Gulf of Guinea, which stretches over 5,700 kilometres from Senegal to Angola, has become the epicentre of pirate attacks, lootings, and kidnappings for ransom.
International Maritime Bureau statistics reveal that from January to September, 82% of maritime kidnappings worldwide occurred in the Gulf of Guinea.
Recent incidents in the region include the abduction of two Filipinos, a Greek, and a Georgian from an oil tanker off the Togolese capital Lome, as well as the kidnapping of nine Filipino seamen off Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin.
