By Kenneth Jukpor
While a pirate attack was being repelled in Nigeria by Russian Navy last night, another incident was recorded in the Gulf of Guinea as three crew were kidnapped in Equitorial Guinea.
The incident which occured at about 10:26pm in Equitorial Guinea, was reported as illegal boarding and kidnap of crew an Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV).
It is believed that the kidnap was for ransom with the location reported to be 50 nautical miles South West of Bioko Island in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Equitorial Guinea.
The distance from shore is approximately 115 nautical miles from Niger Delta coast, where a pirate attack was repelled few hours earlier.
The OSV was reportedly boarded whilst sailing SW in southern area of Equatorial Guinea EEZ and the reports as at 2pm stated that the vessel was drifting with AIS still on.
It took the intervention of the Russian Navy last night to rescue a containership belonging to Mediterranean Shipping Company which was attacked off Bayelsa, in Nigeria.
Reports stated that the 1985-built 1,893 teu MSC Lucia was boarded by an unknown number of armed men earlier yesterday, but a Russian Navy tanker, Akademik Pashin approached the hijacked vessel and rescued it.
