Report Kidnapping Of Crew – 153nm SW Cotonou

Dryad Reporting indicates that the general cargo vessel KOTA BUDI was boarded by heavily armed men resulting in the kidnap of 5 crew.

The kidnapped crew are believed to all be Chinese nationals.

This is the 7^th incident in the waters off Benin within 2020. This latest kidnapping brings the total number of kidnapped personnel in maritime incidents off West Africa in 2020 to 80. Incidents of kidnapping are currently tracking at 26% higher in 2020 than in 2019.