Tuesday, 21 April 2009
It was revealed that the ship which was attacked by some unidentified pirates in Nigeria was a "Marshallese-flagged" Turkish ship, and that captain and second engineer of the ship were taken hostage by pirates.
The ship "Aleyna Mercan" with 15 Turkish crew members on board was attacked by a group of pirates off Nigerian port of Onne on April 20. Pirates seized personal belongings of the crew members and also took hostage captain Sinan Taskiran and engineer Salim Atilla Sengul.
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Maritime Undersecretariat took immediate action and launched necessary initiatives in Nigeria for release of the Turkish citizens.
Meanwhile, the company which owns the ship, sent a new captain and engineer to Nigeria to divert the ship to a safe place.
