Pirates hijack vessel with 23 crew off Benin

DAKAR: Armed men hijacked a Cyprus-flagged fuel tanker with 23 crew off the coast of Benin in West Africa on Wednesday, the International Maritime Bureau said.

The incident is the latest in a string of attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea that experts say is threatening an emerging trade hub and growing source of oil, metals and agricultural products to world markets.

"Armed men boarded the product tanker, which was in the midst of a ship-to-ship transfer about 62 nautical miles southwest of the port of Cotonou, and hijacked it," IMB manager Cyrus Mody told Reuters.

He said the ship was being sailed to an unknown location, and added he had no details on the nationalities of the crew.

Mody said pirates had also attacked a separate vessel in the same vicinity on Wednesday, but the crew had locked itself in the engine room and the pirates eventually left.

The IMB has recorded 19 pirate attacks off of Benin so far this year, from none in 2010 -- a sign that pirates may be moving West of their traditional Nigerian stomping grounds.

"We have reports the Nigerian navy has clamped down on piracy and militancy in their waters," Mody said. "There is a possibility that the Nigerian pirates are going into neighbouring Benin waters."

The US envoy to Benin told Reuters last month that Benin was seeking to buy planes to shore up its coastal surveillance as pirate attacks spike.

Mody said that among the attacks, there have been eight hijackings off of Benin this year, but that all of the crews have since been released, usually within 72 hours.

Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, which stretches from the Guinea to Angola, tend to raid ships for cash and cargo instead of hijacking the crews for huge ransoms like their counterparts off of Somalia.

Copyright Reuters, 2011