Three Romanian seafarers have been kidnapped by pirates from a product tanker in the Gulf of Guinea.
The 40,000-dwt Histria Ivory (built 2006) was attacked by pirates near Lome, Togo, on Sunday evening.
The remaining 18 members of the Maltese-flagged vessel avoided capture by locking themselves in the ship’s citadel. They were uninjured.
Romania's Digi24 website cited the country's Free Trade Union of Navigators (SLN) as confirming the incident.
A crisis committee has been convened in Romania.
SLN added: "After the attack, the pirates left the area, the ship being escorted into the safe anchorage area of the port of Lome.
"The case is now under the responsibility of the designated entities that will take appropriate measures to ensure that seafarers are released safely."
And SLN warned: "In high-risk areas, watch over the navigation command must be increased, the radar also used for short distances to prevent any attempt to succeed in such attacks. Procedures must also be appropriated to each seafarer and followed precisely in case of piracy incidents."
The vessel is operated by Histria Shipmanagment of Romania.
More attacks reported
The attack follows reports of attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Guinea late last month around 70 nautical miles off Brass, Nigeria.
Both vessels were said to have been targeted by two skiffs, one in the morning and one in the evening, of 27 February, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre.
“The end of February and beginning of March saw a series of reports of vessels under attack in the Gulf of Guinea,” said UK-based security consultancy Gray Page.
“As well as the incidents reported by the IMB there were two alerts from the piracy reporting body, the Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade – Gulf of Guinea (MDAT-GoG).
“One said a vessel had been attacked on 2 March, 104 nautical miles (nm) south of Lagos; the other reported a vessel coming under attack a day later, 30 nm south of Lome off the coast of Togo.”
Gray Page said the latest attacks came less than two weeks after a container ship came under fire from a speed boat while underway 80 nm south of the Niger Delta.
“All waters in and off Nigeria and the wider Gulf of Guinea should be seen as dangerous. The greatest risk of attack is at night,” it added.
It urged crews to exercise extreme caution in the area and to avoid slow steaming, while also considering adopting vessel hardening measures.
