One person has gone missing and is presumed to have died after a fire ignited on a cargo vessel in the Calabar Channel in Nigeria's Cross River State on Tuesday, December 23.
The incident involving the Cameroon-registered landing craft Chimba Express occurred in the early afternoon (local time) of Tuesday.
The ship was en route from Gabon to Calabar with a cargo of scrap materials and 21 crewmembers on board at the time of the incident.
The crew sent out a distress call at around 13:00. The Nigerian Navy patrol boat NNS Ose arrived on-scene minutes later and her crew immediately began rescuing the distressed sailors while attempting to extinguish the blaze.
Some of Chimba Express' crew were already in the water when the patrol boat arrived while others remained on board the landing craft as the flames gradually spread.
The patrol boat crew and rescuers from other agencies eventually brought 20 survivors to safety. This number included 14 Nigerian and seven Cameroonian nationals.
The landing craft's chief engineer had reportedly also jumped into the water. However, no trace of this individual has yet been found.
The operation to attempt to locate the missing chief engineer is still ongoing, local media confirmed.
