The Alpine Penelope crude oil tanker has been attacked by suspected pirates 76nw SW Cotonou enroute Lagos.
Dryad Global, a maritime security risk management, announced this in a statement.
Ten crew of the vessel were kidnapped. Although their names remain unknown, they include Georgian, Filipino and Ukrainian nationals.
The vessel had a total of 24 personnel, comprising of citizens of those countries as at the attack time.
Dryad Global said, “source confidence level” of the incident is “high” and that fate of the crew remains unclear.
“Within 2019 the waters off Lome and Cotonou witnessed an increase in both volume and severity of maritime crime incidents,” the maritime experts noted.
“Dryad advise that all vessels transiting the area be subject to thorough transit risk assessment prior to entry into the area and implement full mitigation measures”.
The latest attack is the seventh in the waters off Cotonou since January 19.
Five resulted in illegal boardings offshore, two of which resulted in kidnappings of crew.
