Buccaneer Boarded Boat, Bearing Bamboozled Bunch, Berthed in Bay, Bafflingly Blank on Bids

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Monday said Ankara had not yet received any demands from the pirates who on Saturday seized a container ship and abducted the 15 Turkish sailors on board in the Gulf of Guinea. One Azeri sailor was killed when the armed attackers stormed the vessel, which was headed for Cape Town but eventually docked in Gabon. Turkey’s Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu, who said Ankara was in contact with the authorities in Gabon and neighboring countries, said all crew members would be released: “We will rescue our citizens from the hands of these bandits and reunite them with their families as soon as possible,” he said. According to the latest International Maritime Bureau report, pirates in the West African gulf, which borders more than a dozen states, kidnapped 130 sailors last year in 22 separate incidents. Only five sailors were kidnapped in the rest of the world during that time.