Pirates Hijack Chinese Flagged Vessel Off Liberia’s Coast

Liberia says its coast guard is conducting a maritime operation about 10 nautical miles off its coast involving a Chinese-flagged vessel - the Shanghai 2. Eugene Nagbe, commissioner of the Liberia Maritime Authority, says pirates hijacked the vessel and are holding its Chinese crew hostage. He says there was an exchange of gunfire, but no casualty has been reported. In 2021, armed pirates kidnapped 15 sailors from a Turkish container ship off the coast of Nigeria. Nagbe tells VOA’s James Butty, as a coastal country in the Gulf of Guinea, Liberia has an obligation to intervene because piracy is becoming almost a regular occurrence.