Fifteen Turkish sailors, kidnapped last month by pirates off Nigeria, have been released and are in good health, Ankara said on Friday (February 12th).
Read also: Nigeria: Boko Haram broadcasts a video of kidnapped high school students
"
We are going to repatriate our nationals, their state of health is good
", declared the head of Turkish diplomacy Mevlüt Cavusoglu, quoted by the state press agency Anadolu.
The 15 sailors were kidnapped on January 23 off Nigeria during an armed attack by the cargo ship M / V Mozart, flying the Liberian flag and owned by the Borealis Maritime company based in London, Hamburg and Istanbul.
During this attack, a sailor of Azerbaijani nationality was killed.
After the departure of the attackers, the ship was able to continue its journey towards Gabon with three crew members remaining on board.
Confirming the release of the sailors on Friday, Turkish company Boden Denizcilik, in charge of technical operations on the M / V Mozart, said the 15 crew members would return to Turkey "
in a day or two
".
“
They are still in Nigeria, but they are safe.
They will return to Turkey after passing the necessary health checks
, ”Boden's executive director Levent Karsan told Turkish TV channel TRT.
No details were immediately available on the circumstances of the release of the 15 sailors, but their captors had sent a demand for ransom.
The Gulf of Guinea, which borders Nigeria, has become in recent years the new epicenter of global piracy.
Out of 135 sailors kidnapped around the world in 2020, 130 were kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea, which is a record in this area, the International Maritime Bureau (BMI) said in January.
Ten sailors from a Turkish ship kidnapped off Nigeria were released in August 2019.
