Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea

The Greek-owned tanker was attacked by pirates last week

Apart from a Filipino national who is missing, the remaining 21 crew of a Greek-flagged chemical tanker that was attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea off western Africa on Thursday were reportedly in good health on Friday and the ship was heading to Lagos, Nigeria.

It was still not clear on Friday if the missing crew member was abducted or fell into the sea.

Pirates attacked a Greek oil tanker off the coast of Togo in the early hours of Monday and fled after taking four crew members as hostages, the West African nation's navy said, two days after a similar attack in the waters of neighboring Benin. 

Iran said on Sept. 23 that a British-flagged oil tanker is "free" to leave more than two months after it was seized in the Gulf.

The search for a missing oil tanker off the coast of West Africa entered its fourth day Sunday, with no word on the fate of the 22 Indian nationals aboard the vessel.

Pirates have attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, kidnapping six crew members in a region increasingly hit by piracy in recent years, the Nigerian navy said on April 11.