‘Nigerian pirates’ kidnap 17 Chinese, Ukrainian seamen off Cameroon coast

“Seventeen Chinese and Ukrainians were kidnapped … (of whom) nine (are) Chinese who were abducted on one of the ships,” an official in the port of Douala said.

A Cameroonian security official, likewise speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the account.

The abduction was reported on Thursday by sources in the Cameroonian navy and the country’s port service, but their number and nationality were not then known.

The navy source had said the kidnappers “are probably Nigerian pirates,” adding that Cameroon’s security forces had launched a search for them.

The Gulf of Guinea, whose coastline stretches in a huge arc from Liberia to Gabon, is notorious for piracy as well as oil theft, illegal fishing and human and drugs trafficking.