Six crew members have been abducted from a general cargo ship anchored off Douala in Cameroon.
Security companies said the unnamed Panama-flag vessel was boarded late on the evening of 30 June.
The ship was about one nautical mile (1.8 km) off the port at the time, and had been anchored there since the previous day.
The vessel had a 1.84-metre freeboard at the time of the incident, security company Ambrey said.
Ambrey observed two Cameroonian military vessels responding to the incident, arriving at the scene within minutes. They left a little over an hour later.
The 64-metre ship remained at anchorage on Saturday.
Security company ARC said local naval authorities are investigating the incident.
Three days before the kidnapping, shipowners were alerted to an increased threat of pirate attacks off West Africa.
Ambrey said it had corroborated a message sent between the navies operating in the Gulf of Guinea.
In it, the navies assessed there was a credible threat and risk to merchant vessels, especially those transiting waters off Nigeria, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
Swiss bulker attacked
The previous week, seafarers were injured when a Swiss bulker was boarded off Conakry in Guinea.
Security companies reported that crew members were attacked during the 30-minute raid on a Marshall Islands-flag vessel 33 km (21 miles) south-west of the port.
Four criminals boarded the ship with bladed weapons and used force to take money from the safe before fleeing.
Swiss owner Suisse-Atlantique said later in a statement the vessel was its 63,000-dwt Nyon (built 2021).
In May, Eagle Bulk Shipping celebrated the safe return of three seafarers who were kidnapped three weeks previously off Gabon.
The captain, first mate and second mate were abducted on 2 May in an attack on the Stamford-based shipowner’s 58,000-dwt Glebe Bulker (built 2010), which took place 4.7 nautical miles off the Owendo anchorage.
The abduction was part of a string of attacks in West Africa, which was considered the world’s global piracy hot spot before incidents fell off in mid-2021.
The first was an attack off the Republic of the Congo on the 13,700-dwt tanker Monjasa Reformer (built 2003) on 25 March. Six seafarers taken in that incident were safely recovered earlier in May.
The ship, with 16 crew members on board, was missing for several days until it was spotted by the French Navy off Sao Tome & Principe on 30 March.
Monjasa said the pirates had left 10 crew members and brought the other six to Nigeria.
The attack on the product tanker was followed by a second incident, when Hai Soon Diesel & Trading’s 6,100-dwt Success 9 (built 2003) was boarded 556 km off the Ivory Coast on 10 April.
The ship was missing for six days, but the crew was ultimately safe.
