Senegal detains suspected pirate ship

Ship engaged in ‘illegal activities’ according to media.

Senegal detains suspected pirate ship

Local media reports from Senegal say that the Senegalese Navy has detained a suspected pirate ship in the country’s waters.

The vessel was intercepted around 92km West of the capita, Dakar, by the Senegalese Navy on February 12th at 2045 LT and is currently docked in the Port of Dakar while investigations are ongoing. The authorities are convinced that the vessel was not being used for fishing at the time of its arrest and the Navy boarded her following information received about ‘illegal activities unrelated to fishing’. Part of the investigation will be to determine the vessel and crew’s nationality, the media reports stated.

While the Gulf of Guinea remains an extremely dangerous place for merchant ships, with crew kidnappings and hijackings still an issue, there has not been a report of piracy as far North as Senegal for some time. It’s entirely possible that the ship in question was involved in smuggling or criminal activity, but MSR will monitor reports as the investigation unfolds.