Local Cargo Ship Latest to Fall Victim to Gulf of Guinea Pirates

A smaller general cargo ship has become the latest vessel to fall victim to predators operating in the Gulf of Guinea. The security services are reporting that a vessel that operates in the local region was boarded and five African nations were abducted from the crew.

The Cap Saint Georges, a 700 DWT vessel, built in 1973 and registered in Cameroon, had departed Cameroon and was underway to her homeport in Togo according to Praesidium International when the attack occurred. An unknown number of perpetrators came aboard on December 10 while the vessel was approximately 50 to 60 miles offshore from Nigeria. The Cap Saint Georges later continued to Lome where she arrived on December 13 and reported the incident.

According to Dryad Global, it marks the twenty-sixth successful kidnapping with a total of 130 individuals having been abducted in 2020. Dryad notes that there has been a surge in incidents in the region in the past weeks. 

The abduction of the crew from the Cap Saint Georges marks the eighth incident in December, however, it was the first successful abduction. There have been four attacks and three boardings with one additional approach in the past two weeks. All of these incidents were in December but were unsuccessful in seizing crew or the ships.

This latest event is unusual in that most of the targets are larger vessels and less often the smaller, locally registered ships. Dryad had warned that it believed the pirates operating in the area were becoming more desperate and approaching a wider range of targets as well as operating further out to sea and in a wider range.