Captain states pirates' attack on tanker with sailors from Georgia

A Greek tanker with 17 Georgian citizens, which disappeared for two weeks from radar along the coast of Africa, has been found and returned to the port, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has informed. The captain of the ship said that the tanker had been captured by pirates.

The vessel under the flag of Panama disappeared on August 14, when the tanker followed through the Gulf of Guinea. There were 19 people on board – 17 citizens of Georgia and two Russians.

On August 23, employees of the regional centre for maritime security of Central Africa found the 121-meter-long tanker near the port of Pointe-Noire in Congo, the "Africanews" Agency has reported.
On August 24, the tanker named "Pantelena" returned to the port of Lomé of the Republic of Togo, the Georgian MFA has reported.

"According to the captain, in the territorial waters of Gabon, the crew was attacked by armed pirates; and the tanker was hijacked and driven into the open sea," the "InterPressNews" reports.

The Russian Embassy in Gabon has noted that the crew did not suffer.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 25, 2018 at 02:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.