Ship, 16 crew held hostage in Guinea

Vadodara: The wife of a Vadodara-based engineer, who is stuck in Guinea — a coastal country in West Africa — has asked the Indian government to help release her husband whose ship has been detained by the Guinea Navy for over three months now.
Sneha Shauche’s husband Harshwardhan was on the ship that sailed to Equatorial Guinea a few months ago.
The Heroic Idun ship was anchored on the international maritime boundary of Nigeria in August when the navy detained 16 Indian crew members aboard it on suspicion of foul play.
Sneha said that their family has already sought help from Vadodara MP Ranjan Bhatt who has contacted the foreign ministry. Harshwardhan’s family had received a message six days ago that Nigeria had taken custody of all the ship crew members. She had last contacted her husband through a video-call in October.
The ship was supposed to load cargo in Nigeria but the operation got delayed.
The Nigerian Navy craft reportedly approached them but the ship crew, who couldn’t identify it in the dark, allegedly sailed out. A few days later, the Equatorial Guinean Navy vessel detained them.