A group of gunmen has been jailed for up to 20 years for an attempted hijacking in Togo's first piracy trial.
The nine men tried to seize the 1,400-dwt tanker G Dona 1 (built 1987) in Togolese waters in May 2019.
They received sentences of between 12 and 20 years at a Lome court, African News reported.
The tanker is owned by God Is With Us Marine of Benin.
A total of 10 defendants had been charged with piracy offences. These included seven Nigerians and two Togolese, who were jailed for terms of between 12 and 15 years.
A Ghanaian man is reported to be on the run and facing an international arrest warrant. He was was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in his absence.
Another defendant cleared
A third Togolese national was acquitted.
The trial and verdict will be seen as confirmation that West African nations are taking violence at sea increasingly seriously.
"People should understand that piracy and armed robbery at sea will be punished. And for these sea offences, we will be uncompromising," prosecutor Kodjo Gnambi Garba told reporters.
Reports of pirate attacks have dropped away in the last couple of months.
The last significant incident came in the first week of June, when the 63,500-dwt, Marshall Islands-flag bulker CP Tianjin (built 2016) was targeted by a gang twice in the same day south-west of Nigeria.
Approached by skiff
Piracy reporting organisations said the ultramax bulker was initially approached by six gunmen in a skiff on 6 June, 220 nautical miles (407 km) off Lagos in international waters.
The ship was being escorted by a private security escort vessel (SEV) at the time, and the incident came to nothing.
But when the bulker was released by the SEV, the pirate boat later came alongside again, according to security company Ambrey.
The ship was underway at 12.5 knots.
Pirates followed the bulker for about 30 minutes, during which time the crew are reported to have moved to the citadel and the vessel increased speed to 13.1 knots.
The skiff subsequently distanced itself from the area and the bulker resumed its course.
A total of 175 seafarers have been kidnapped from ships since the beginning of 2020, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
