By Marta Ardashelia TBILISI, Aug 24 (Reuters)– A vessel with 19 staff participants aboard has actually anchored at a port in Togo after going missing out on for over a week in a thought pirating off the West African shore, the staff’s firm stated onFriday

The Ialkani firm as well as the ship’s supervisors shed interaction with the Panama- signed up Pantelena onAug 14, when it had to do with 17 miles (27 kilometres) from the port of Libreville, in Gabon.

Two Russian nationals as well as 17 Georgians were aboard the vessel, a twin objective oil or chemicals vessel handled by Athens- basedLotus Shipping The business provided no additional information on the freight or staff.

“Our guys are alive and well. The ship is already in the port of Lome (Togo’s capital) and soon representatives of our company will meet them,” the head of Ialkani, Anzhela Oganesyan, stated.

“I am almost certain that this was an attack by pirates.”

Vladimer Konstantinidu, replacement head of the Georgian international ministry’s consular office division, stated the ministry had actually not yet had the ability to connect with the returning staff yet can not dismiss that the vessel had actually been pirated.

While piracy has actually reduced worldwide, specifically off Somalia’s shore, a hotbed for hijackings a years earlier, West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea has actually ended up being a boosting target for pirates that swipe freight as well as need ransom money.

Ships in the Gulf of Guinea were targeted by a collection of pirate raids in 2014, according to a record by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which highlighted the waters off West Africa as a location of expanding worry.

Ten kidnappings entailing 65 staff participants occurred in or around Nigerian waters, the IMB stated. Globally 16 vessels reported being bombarded, 7 of which remained in the Gulf ofGuinea (Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Aaron Ross as well as Jan Harvey)

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