Eight crew members have been released more than three weeks after they were taken captive when pirates attacked their tanker in the Gulf of Guinea, Greek coastguard said on Wednesday.
The seamen were set free earlier this morning following “successful negotiations” and will be repatriated after medical checks, according to the announcement.
“Coordinated efforts bore fruit,” Greek Shipping Minister Yiannis Plakiotakis said in the statement, without providing further details.
The 51,400-dwt Happy Lady (built 2013), a ship managed by Thanassis Martinos-led company Eastern Mediterranean Maritime (Eastmed), was the latest victim in a string of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea.
The vessel was anchored two miles off Limboh — a port in Cameroon — when armed pirates raided it.
Of the Happy Lady's 28 crew members, five Greeks were abducted, including the vessel’s 45-year-old master, as well as two Filipinos and one Ukrainian. Another Greek crew member was injured during the raid and had to be hospitalised.
Attackers’ focus in the Gulf of Guinea has shifted from cargo theft to holding crews for ransom.
The region accounted for about eight in 10 crew kidnappings, according to a report issued in October by the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre.
The situation has only got worse since, with several other vessels being the victims of attacks involving crew kidnappings.
