Six crew members of fishing boats that had been kidnapped in early May by pirates off Gabon were released on Monday in southern Nigeria, the South Korean ministry said on Tuesday (June 9th) in a statement.
Read also: Nigeria: 21 dead in an attack by "bandits" in the northwest
Among them are a South Korean man in his fifties, two Senegalese and three Indonesians. They were transferred to the diplomatic missions of their respective countries. A source close to the government in Gabon then told AFP that the six men were kidnapped during the attack on two fishing boats off Libreville. It was the second pirate attack recorded since the start of the year off the coast of Gabon.
The Gulf of Guinea, at the heart of which Nigeria is located, has become in recent years a haunt of pirates and the new epicenter of this type of attack, looting of ships and kidnappings for ransoms. Asked by AFP about the possible payment of a ransom, a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment.
Read also: A tanker attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden
