{"id":59578,"date":"2020-01-23T16:24:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T08:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=59578"},"modified":"2020-01-23T16:24:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T08:24:28","slug":"west-africa-pirates-release-happy-lady-tanker-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=59578","title":{"rendered":"West Africa: Pirates release Happy Lady tanker crew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn03.allafrica.com\/download\/pic\/main\/main\/csiid\/00541537:7f5e02bd79a7493134327f9b4ca70792:arc614x376:w735:us1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">West African Nations with coastlines on the Gulf of Guinea<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ATHENS, Jan 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Armed hostage-takers on Wednesday released a Greek oil tanker captain and seven crew members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crew members of the Greek-flagged Happy Lady tanker were kidnapped on Dec 31 in the port of Limbe near Cameroon&#8217;s economic capital Douala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crew members comprised five Greeks, two Filipinos and one Ukrainian national.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I am delighted with the release of five Greek sailors,&#8221; said Greek Merchant Marine Minister Giannis Plakiotakis. &#8220;Our coordinated efforts have been effective.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plakiotakis noted that the sailors were only released after &#8220;the successful end of negotiations.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past two years, the Gulf of Guinea &#8212; which stretches more than 5,700 kilometers from Senegal to Angola &#8212; has become the global epicenter of maritime piracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2018, more than 170 incidents of piracy and armed robbery of tankers and merchant vessels were reported, according to figures provided by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The coast off Nigeria is considered one of the most dangerous points, with the IMB saying &#8220;all waters in (and) off Nigeria remain risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In many past incidents, pirates have hijacked vessels for several days and ransacked the vessels and stole part cargo, usually gas oil,&#8221; the IMB said on its website. &#8220;Vessels are advised to be vigilant.&#8221; &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West African Nations with coastlines on the Gulf of Guinea ATHENS, Jan 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Armed hostage-takers on Wednesday released a Greek oil tanker captain and seven crew members. The crew members of the Greek-flagged Happy Lady tanker were kidnapped on Dec 31 in the port of Limbe near Cameroon&#8217;s economic capital Douala. The crew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59578"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}