Pirates Kidnap Chinese Crewmembers From Fishing Vessel off Gabon
On Monday, armed pirates boarded a trawler off the coast of Gabon and kidnapped multiple foreign crewmembers, according to the Gabonese ministry of defense.
At about 0200 hours local time, the Gabonese-flagged fishing vessel IB Fish 7 was under way and engaged in fishing about seven nautical miles off Ekwata, Gabon. Three armed pirates approached and boarded, and they kidnapped nine crewmembers, reports maritime security consultancy Vanguard Tech.
The abductees included five Chinese nationals and four Indonesians. The remaining six crewmembers - all Indonesian, Chinese and Burkina Faso nationals - were left behind on board.
On learning of the attack, the authorities in Gabon launched a response, assisted by the French Navy. The responders escorted IB Fish 7 back to port in Libreville, Gabon, without further incident.
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IB Fish 7 does not appear in international shipping databases. AIS signals for vessels named IB Fish 1, 2 and 3 have been received by some (but not all) marine traffic tracking platforms.
IB Fish is a division of Burkina Faso company EBOMAF, a growing conglomerate with interests throughout West Africa. The firm recently built a tuna processing plant in Gabon to localize production of higher-value goods.