Cameroon: Pirates attack, abduct captain

  1. Posted on Monday 29 August 2011 - 09:25
    Walter
    Image of Walter
    Walter Wilson Nana, AfricaNews reporter in Buea, Cameroon
    Unidentified pirates attacked a passenger ship and took its captain hostage early Saturday close to the maritime frontier between Cameroon and Nigeria, a passenger onboard said. The pirates in a flying boat attacked a passenger ship travelling from the seaside town of Limbe in the Southwest Region of Cameroon to Calabar in the Eastern Region of Nigeria, precisely at the Oron Baracks, a locality close to the maritime frontier of the two countries.
    cameroon map
    "They were seven well armed pirates who came in on a speed boat. They were unmasked but had beads on their bodies. They fired several shots in the air ordering the ship, Monica Express, with 150 passengers on board to stop," he added.

    As the ship halted, the pirates got in, seized FCFA 200,000 ($444) from the captain of the ship and asked all the passengers to surrender all the money they had on them and sailed off, taking the captain hostage.

    According to the passenger, the pirates harmed nobody but said they were taking the captain of the ship, on a regular passenger transportation business between Cameroon and Nigeria, with them because he had refused to pay taxes.

    The captain is said to be a Cameroonian based in Limbe. The ship finally, with the help of the assistant cap, sailed and arrived in Calabar two hours later.

    Saturday's incident was the first after gunmen, suspected to be pirates, killed up to five people and carted away an undisclosed sum of money in an overnight raid on a bank in Cameroon's port and economic town of Douala, in March 2011.

    Cameroon and Nigeria are two oil-producing nations in the Gulf of Guinea region that have been plagued by attacks on ships and seaside towns that are often blamed on pirates in recent years.

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