Judicial and maritime sources announced last Wednesday the Russian captain of an American bulk carrier and two of his officers, Georgians, were kidnapped at the beginning of the week near a Gabonese port by pirates who attacked their ship.

On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the Grebe Bulker, a 190-m-long bulk carrier owned by the American shipping company Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc but flying the flag of the Marshall Islands, was attacked by pirates while anchored less than 8 km off the Gabonese commercial port of Owendo, in the suburbs of the capital, Libreville. The captain, a Russian, and his second and third officers, two Georgians, “were abducted by unknown persons.” According to consistent sources, the attack is one of the closest to the coast and to a major Gabonese city ever committed by pirates