26/10/2013 15:51
Hunt for U.S. pair seized off Nigeria
The Nigerian navy has yet to find two U.S. citizens kidnapped from an oilfield supply ship attacked this week in the piracy-plagued Gulf of Guinea off Africa's western coast, a spokesman said Friday, according to CNN.
The Americans -- a captain and a chief engineer -- were kidnapped off the 221-foot oilfield supply ship C-Retriever. They remained missing amid a search-and-rescue effort led by the Nigerian navy, spokesman Kabir Aliyu, told CNN on Friday.
The ship itself was in a port on Friday, said a U.S. official who didn't disclose the port's location. A second U.S. official said 11 people had been aboard the ship before it was attacked.
Details about the whereabouts and conditions of the other nine have not been released.
Aliyu vowed that Nigerian forces would "bring the criminals to justice."
The Nigerian navy said Thursday that it would try to rescue the kidnapped captain and chief engineer. But it was unclear whether anyone other than their captors know where the two were taken after their seizure Wednesday.
It is not uncommon for pirates to seize merchant crewmen for ransom, but it was unclear whether that was the scenario playing out Friday.