In a bizarre incident, 20 Indian crew members of an oil tanker named Duke -2, were kidnapped from the Gulf of Guinea known to be a hotbed of maritime privacy. The tanker was cruising 115 miles southeast of Lomé, capital of Togo, according to the shipping line company –Union Maritime-which owns the oil tanker. The pirates, it is reported , let the Nigerian crew go.
Oil tanker was coming from Angola. This stretch of sea is notorious for large scale piracy, which used to hog headlines. After a lull time, the acts of piracy have intensified this year. Nineteen sailors were kidnapped from a supertanker off the coast of Nigeria earlier this year. This was followed by the kidnapping of four crew members from a Greek tanker anchored in a port in Lomé, in early November. The International Maritime Bureau says that more than 82% of the kidnapping worldwide takes place in the Gulf of Guinea
While the Gulf of Guinea is becoming the hub of recent kidnapping, worldwide acts of piracy have been on the decline for the past nine months. The report is also confirmed by India’s foreign ministry, which said the kidnapping had taken place in the West African waters. The Indian foreign ministry official said that the matter has been taken up with the Nigerian authorities. The tanker was carrying oil from Angola to Toga. It may be noted that in the oil tanker, from where the crew was kidnapped earlier on December 5, were all Indians except one person. The supertanker cruising off Nigeria was chartered by a French oil company -Total- to deliver crude oil to India.
