Pirates looted ship off Angola, maintain owners

[ATHENS] The Greek owners of an oil tanker that vanished off the Angolan coast on Jan 18 say pirates hijacked the vessel and stole a large quantity of cargo, contradicting the Angolan navy's denial that such an assault took place.

Greece-based Dynacom, owners of the 75,000 deadweight tonne Liberian- flagged tanker MT Kerala, said it had managed to contact crew on the vessel who reported the pirates had left. "Pirates hijacked the vessel offshore Angola and stole a large quantity of cargo by ship-to-ship transfer. The pirates have now disembarked," the company said in a statement on Sunday. It did not provide any further details on the at…