Equatorial Guinea has authorized the return to Nigeria of a supertanker and its 25 crew members, arrested in August off its coast and held since in a port south of the capital, announced the vice President on Twitter.
On August 8, this supertanker with a capacity of three million barrels suspected of participating in illegal trafficking fled off Port Harcourt (southeast), the oil capital of Nigeria, after refusing to comply.
The “Mt. Heroic Idun” then launched a “false alarm” of piracy on board to “justify” its escape before being arrested on August 12 off the coast of Equatorial Guinea and held for nearly three months in the port of Luba, 45 km south of Malabo.
The Attorney General of Equatorial Guinea, Anatalio Nzang Nguema, confirmed the arrest of the vessel and its crew for “navigation in the marine waters of Equatorial Guinea without authorization and without a flag to identify the country of the vessel.”
The crew was composed of 25 members, including 16 Indians, seven Sri Lankans, one Pole, and one Filipino.
“In my capacity as head of defense and security, I have authorized the handing over of the boat “Heroic Idun” to the government of Nigeria,” wrote Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue on Twitter, without specifying a date.
At the end of May, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to intensify the fight against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, valued by the UN at two billion dollars per year.