Bulker Nyon boarded by pirates off West Africa

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The bulk carrier Nyon is the latest ship to have been attacked by West African pirates after being boarded by four armed men on 22 June.

The bulk carrier, registered in the Marshall Islands and owned and managed by Suisse-Atlantique, had arrived in the Gulf of Guinea from Djen-Djen in Algeria and was at anchor some 16 nautical miles offshore off the port of Conakry in Guinea.

According to the security services company Eos Group, four armed men boarded the vessel in the early hours (03h30) of Thursday 22 June and made their way to the accommodation section of the ship where they forcibly broke into the ship’s safe and removed the contents, including money.

Several of the crew were assaulted and left with minor injuries. There were three other vessels at anchor within a three-mile radius of Nyon, who remained unaware of what was happening close by.

It appears that robbery was the sole motive behind this latest attack with the pirates leaving the vessel shortly afterwards.

Nyon was then taken into port at Conakry. The incident has been confirmed by the coordinated British and France monitoring operation Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade Gulf of Guinea (MDAT GoG), who subsequently issued an advisory.

Most cases of piracy in the wider Gulf of Guinea involve the abduction of crew and their later ransoming by the pirates, but robbery of ships at anchor offshore remain common.

The Ultramax bulker Nyon was built in 2021 and has a length of 200 metres and width of 32 metres. The ship’s deadweight is 63,464 tons.