ROME - Pirates have seized an Italian tanker carrying a cargo of diesel fuel in the Gulf of Guinea off Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin in West Africa, the Italian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
The ship, the RBD Anema e Core with a crew of 23 on board, was taken in the early hours of Sunday when a number of assailants boarded. Two of the crew are Italians, the others Filipinos and Romanian.
The Foreign Ministry's crisis unit was in contact with Italian maritime officials and with the ship's operators in the southern city of Naples, a spokesman said.
