ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Armed pirates attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the West African coast, abducting 15 sailors and killing one of them, officials said on Sunday as Turkey sought to retrieve the captured crew.
The Liberian flag M / V Mozart sailed from Lagos, Nigeria, to Cape Town in South Africa when it was attacked 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) northwest of the island of Sao Tome and Principe on Saturday morning.
According to the Maritime Directorate of Turkey, the crew initially locked themselves in a safe area, but the pirates invaded after six hours. One crew member on board was killed during the battle. It identified the victim as engineer Farman Ismayilov of Azerbaijan, the only non-Turkish crew member.
After the pirates kidnapped most of the crew, they left the ship in the Gulf of Guinea with three sailors on board, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. According to reports, the pirates eliminated most of the ship systems, leaving only the navigation system for the remaining crew to find their way to Port-Gentil in Gabon.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, the Gulf of Guinea, off the coasts of Nigeria, Guinea, Togo, Benin and Cameroon, is the most dangerous sea in the world for piracy.
The maritime safety advisory agency Dryad Global described the attack as an “extraordinary incident due to the severity and distance from the coast.” Last year, entry into the waters of West Africa rose to 18 from 13 in 2019, the London firm added.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said he had spoken to Mozart’s senior officer Furkan Yaren and that the morale and physical condition of the sailors on board were good.
“We are continuing coordinated negotiations for the release” of the abducted sailors, he said. “The pirates have not yet responded.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken to Yaren twice, his office said in a tweet. It added that Erdogan had issued orders for the recovery of the abducted crew.
“The owners and operators of the M / V Mozart, hijacked with a rifle in the Gulf of Guinea, have regrettably confirmed that one of the crew members was killed and another was abducted,” said Boden Maritime, Istanbul.
Among the prisoners is the captain of the ship, Mustafa Kaya (41). His brother Seyit from Istanbul said the sailors’ families were summoned by Erdogan.
“We hope to see them soon for free, unharmed,” he said. Everyone is trying. We pray for our brothers. ”
In July 2019, ten Turkish seafarers were abducted off the coast of Nigeria. They were released less than a month later.