9 Chinese, 8 Ukrainian seamen kidnapped on water

The number and nationalities of the seamen kidnapped off-Cameroon on Thursday have now been revealed. They are nine Chinese and eight Ukrainians, all abducted when two merchant vessels came under attack, believed to be by Nigerian pirates, in Cameroonian waters.

“Seventeen Chinese and Ukrainians were kidnapped… (of whom) nine (are) Chinese who were abducted on one of the ships,” an official in the port of Douala told AFP.

A Cameroonian security official confirmed the account, adding that Cameroon’s security forces had launched a search for them.

The Gulf of Guinea, whose coastline stretches in a huge arc from Liberia to Gabon, is notorious for piracy as well as oil theft, illegal fishing and human and drugs trafficking.

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