Reporting by Dryad Global indicates that a containership has been attacked 48nm off SW Luba, and in fact 6 crew members have been kidnapped.
FleetMon suggests the boxship involved is the Tonsberg, which was heading from Cameroon to Benin. This incident follows another attack that involved kidnapping in the region off Equatorial Guinea.
More specifically, the monitoring operation MDAT-GoG first reported a suspicious approach after midnight saying that a skiff was spotted with 12 individuals aboard
This took place near the port of Owendo in Gabon. This prompted MDAT-GoG to issue a warning for “an increased high risk of piracy activity for the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Dryad reported that three crew members were abducted from the OSV Montet Tide. The offshore supply vessel was boarded and three crew members were taken.
Hours after the report of the kidnappings from the OSV, there were reports of a boarding of an unidentified containership. The second incident happened about 35 nautical miles away from the first and six crew members were kidnapped.
MDAT-GoG reported that one of the two vessels that had been boarded was secured. Gabon has also dispatched forces to the area.
The latest attacks bring the total number of kidnapping incidents in 2021 to 10 and the number of kidnapped personnel to 76.
