Eight Russian and Ukrainian seafarers who were kidnapped from the BBC Caribbean cargo ship last month in Nigeria have been released after being held in captivity for nearly a month.
The ship’s owner, German-based Briese Schiffahrts, has confirmed that seven Russians and one Ukrainian citizen are in good health after being released in the evening hours of March 3, 2017, after 26 days of captivity.
The men were abducted by a group of armed Nigerian pirates while their ship was sailing some 120 nautical miles west-southwest of Bonny Island on February 5, while travelling from Duala, Cameroon to Tema, Ghana.
The ICC International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) annual piracy report revealed at the start of 2017 that more crew were kidnapped at sea in 2016 than in any of the previous 10 years, despite global piracy reaching its lowest levels since 1998.