The American captain and chief engineer of a United States ship were captured by pirates in Nigeria Wednesday Fox News reported Thursday.
"Obviously our concern is their safe return," Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the state department told Fox News. "At this point we do not have information that would indicate this was an act of terrorism." Harf also told Fox News the state department continues to watch for other news about what occurred.
The incident occurred on the oil platform supply vessel, C-Retriever, which belongs to Edison Chouest Offshore out of Louisiana according to information from AKE, a security company headquartered in the United Kingdom, and two other sources Reuters reported. The incident is the second one to happen in the last three days. The 200 feet long ship was crusing near Brass, Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.
"The biggest fear is that the kidnappers make it to shore with the two Americans," a law enforcement official told Fox News. "And it looks like they may have. That is certainly not ideal."
Wednesday's dilemma also happened just after the pirates struck a Nigerian security boat that resulted in the deaths of soldiers in the Nigerian military's joint task force.
"The piracy threat is spreading even further through the waters of West Africa, and the attacks have been mounting, even as global rates of reported piracy are at their lowest since 2006," Michael Frodl C-Level Maritime Risks told Reuters.
An international naval force was formed by leaders in West Africa in June to help protect the waters in the surrounding vicinity.
"I urge the international community to show the same firmness in the Gulf of Guinea as displayed in [Somalia's] Gulf of Aden, where the presence of international naval forces has helped to drastically reduce acts of piracy," Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast president, said in a statement BBC News reported.
