“The six crew members who were abducted from the tanker Monjasa Reformer have all been recovered safe and sound from an undisclosed location in Nigeria,” Danish company Monjasa said in a statement.
The six sailors “are in relatively good health given the difficult circumstances they have faced for more than five weeks,” said the owner of the ship, which flies the Liberian flag. After medical examinations, they are being repatriated to their countries of residence to find their families, said Monjasa, who had refused to reveal their nationalities.
The shipowner, saluting their “courage”, refused any other comment on the conditions for the end of the hostage-taking, in particular on the payment of a possible ransom.
The Monjasa Reformer had been attacked at night on March 25 by a pirate boat when it was 140 nautical miles off the Congolese port of Pointe-Noire, and contact was lost shortly afterwards with the 16 members of the ‘crew.
The 135-meter tanker was found six days later off Sao Tome-et-Principe, in the eastern Gulf of Guinea, by a French navy ship that went looking for it.
The boat of the alleged pirates, initially spotted by a drone, had fled the ship by boarding six sailors. The ten other crew members who remained on board were able to be rescued, with three of them slightly injured.
According to the Franco-British MDAT-GoG (“Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade Gulf of Guinea”) mission and the French Navy, five pirates carried out the attack.