The fishing vessel was chased by a speed boat before being boarded by the pirates. The kidnapped crew includes 5 Korean and one Ghanian mariner.
The speedboat was last seen heading East towards Nigerian waters, Dryad said.
“This is the 7th incident within the waters off Cotonou within 2020. The last incident recorded within this area was on the 14 May 20 when a vessel was approached 106nm South Cotonou,” the maritime security firm added.
As explained, this represents a significant uptick in reporting within this area when compared to last year when only three incidents were reported for the whole of 2019.
This is the second boarding of a fishing vessel in the waters off Lome and Cotonou, the previous incident involving the hijack of the Hailufeno 11 on May 15th, 2020.
Based on the latest piracy report from the IMB, the Gulf of Guinea remains the world’s piracy hotspot.
In the first quarter of 2020, 21 attacks were recorded in the Gulf of Guinea by predominantly armed perpetrators. They approach in speedboats, boarding ships in order to steal stores or cargo and abduct crewmembers to demand a ransom.
Dryad Global獲悉，貝寧Cotonou港以南約61海里處的一夥持槍歹徒綁架了漁船Panofi Frontier號上六名船員。
在被海盜登船之前，這艘漁船被一艘快艇追趕。被綁架的船員包括5名韓國人和1名加納水手。
Dryad說，最後一次看到快艇是朝東駛向尼日利亞水域。
海上安全公司補充說：“這是2020年內Cotonou附近水域內的第七起事件。該地區的最後一次事件發生在2020月5日14日，當時一艘船在Cotounou南向106海裡。”
如所解釋的，與去年相比，這代表該領域內報告的大幅增加，去年整個2019年僅報告了三起事件。
這是在Lome和Cotonou附近水域的第二次漁船綁架，上一次為2020年5月15日劫持Hailufeno 11號的事件。
根據IMB的最新海上盜竊報告，幾內亞灣仍然是世界上的海盜熱點。
2020年第一季度， 21起主要襲擊事件被紀錄在幾內亞灣。他們會接近快艇，登船偷竊貯存品或貨物並綁架船員索要贖金。
Imformation source: World Maritime News Staff
Image Courtesy: Ettoday
