November 07, 2022: 16 Indian merchant navy officers held hostages by Guinea navy for now over 3 months.

The families of the Indian sailors expressed their concern as they are worried about the safety of the officers and have demanded for instant release of the officers.

Gaurav Arora who is a resident of Govind nagar in Kanpur is one amongst the 16 who has been detained by the Navy of Equatorial Guinea, located in the west coast of Africa.

Gaurav’s family said that he had recently joined merchant navy and was on a Norway based ship ‘MT Heroic Idun’ that reached AKPO offshore a conventional gas development located in ultra-deep water in Nigeria on August 8 when he was detained along with the other crew members of the ship.

The guinea navy detained them on the suspicion that they had come to steal oil. The family said they were really worried that the Guinea Navy is going to hand over the ship crew to Nigeria and might be charged of false allegations.