7 Kidnapped from MSC Talia F Containership

Seven crew members of the Portuguese flagged containership MSC Talia F have been kidnapped off Gabon, Dryad Global informed on Sunday, March 22.

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The boarding took place some 52 nautical miles West of Port Libreville, the Gabonese Republic.

“It is believed that the vessel has a crew of 17 all understood to be Ukrainian nationals. The vessel is believed to have been en-route from Lomé to Port Libreville at the time of boarding,” Dryad said in a report.

The 2005-built feedermax is owned by Greek Technomar Shipping and managed by Switzerland-based MSC, data from VesselsValue shows.

WMN is yet to receive a comment on the matter from the owners and managers of the ship.

As informed, this is the first incident within this area in 2020. Within 2019 there were 4 recorded incidents at Port Libreville and the Owendo Anchorage involving a spate of incidents in December 2019.

One of those incidents resulted in the kidnapping of four Chinese fishermen and later the crew from a vessel transiting from Douala to Port Libreville, Dryad said.