Three Chinese sailors missing off Ghana after suspected pirate attack

By : AFP

Date: 30 March 2025 11:04am WAT

FILES-DENMARK-PIRACY-DEFENCE-NIGERIA-TRANSPORT

(FILES) In this file handout photo taken on January 05, 2014 and released by Norwegian Armed Forces, the Danish support vessel L17 "Esbern Snare" is pictured during training with the Norwegian frigate HNoMS "Helge Ingstad" in the Mediterranean Sea in preparation to escort a delayed shipment of Syria's chemical agents for destruction. - A Danish patrol in the Gulf of Guinea has killed four pirates in an exchange of fire off the coast of Nigeria, the Danish armed forces said on November 25, 2021. "No Danish soldiers were injured, but five pirates were shot. Four of the pirates died. One was injured," the military said. The incident occurred on November 24, 2021 when the Danish frigate Esbern Snare, which has been patrolling the area since early November, attempted to board the pirate ship. (Photo by LARS MAGNE HOVTUN / Norwegian Armed Forces / AFP)

Three Chinese sailors missing off Ghana after suspected pirate attack

Three Chinese nationals are missing after their vessel came under a “suspected pirate attack” off the coast of Ghana, authorities said over the weekend.

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The apparent kidnapping is the latest in the Gulf of Guinea, an area off the Atlantic coast of Africa whose waters — rich in hydrocarbons and fisheries — stretch across a slew of jurisdictions, including those of countries with limited naval and coast guard capacities.

Just before 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, seven armed individuals boarded the Mengxin I vessel in Ghanaian waters and fired warning shots, the Ghanaian military said in a statement.

The assailants rounded up members of the crew and sent others into hiding.

By the time the attackers departed three hours later, the captain, chief mate and chief engineer — all Chinese nationals — were missing, according to the statement, dated Saturday.

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They are “suspected of being kidnapped by the attackers,” it said.

Ghanaian authorities are sharing information with other members of west African regional bloc ECOWAS, it added.

In 2022, a UN Security Council resolution co-sponsored by Ghana and Norway was issued to condemn the spike of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

A study published in 2021 by the Stable Seas research institute found that pirate groups, mostly in the Niger Delta, can earn around $5 million per year through theft and hostage-taking.

That same year, a Danish naval patrol killed four pirates in an exchange of fire off the coast of Nigeria.

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