“Armed pirates commandeered a fuel tanker off the West African nation of Benin on Wednesday and took its 23 crew members hostage, an international piracy monitoring group reported.
The hijacking was the latest in a series of increasingly brazen assaults on commercial shipping in a coastal region of Africa that had been considered relatively safe until this year. “
Source: Pirates Hijack Tanker and 23 Crew Members off Benin – NYTimes.com