Armed assailants abducted nine sailors after boarding a fishing trawler off the coast of Gabon on Saturday night, in the latest piracy incident reported in the Gulf of Guinea, the defence ministry said on Monday. The navy said three armed individuals attacked the trawler IB Fish 7, which was flying the Gabonese flag and fishing about seven nautical miles southwest of Ekwata in Gabonese waters. Those abducted included five Chinese nationals and four Indonesians, according to navy chief of staff Hubert Bekale Meyong.
Six other crew members of Indonesian, Chinese and Burkinabe nationalities remained on board the vessel. Gabonese authorities later located the trawler and escorted it to the port of Libreville, where an inquiry has been opened. The incident follows a similar attack in February last year, when three sailors were kidnapped from a fishing trawler near the capital, underscoring persistent security concerns in the Gulf of Guinea, a key maritime corridor for oil, gas and commercial shipping.