Ship blaze crew rescued in waters off African coast

International cooperation successfully saved 19 distressed crew members, including 18 Chinese nationals and one Vietnamese national, in African waters on Wednesday.

At around 10 pm on Tuesday, the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center of the Ministry of Transport received a distress call from the shipowner of the Panamanian bulk carrier Apollo Triumph. The vessel, carrying 19 crew, caught fire in the cargo area in central waters in the Mozambique Channel between Mozambique and Madagascar.

The crew members abandoned the ship and boarded life rafts, meaning they could not be contacted. The incident took place approximately 100 nautical miles from the coast, with a water depth exceeding 2,000 meters. Moreover, it was nearly 6,000 nautical miles from Sanya, Hainan province, where China's closest search and rescue base is located.

Upon receiving the distress call, Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng immediately called for enhanced communication with relevant departments and other countries, urging them to make every effort to rescue and safeguard the lives of the crew members.

The China Maritime Search and Rescue Center promptly activated the emergency response mechanism for overseas maritime search and rescue. They coordinated with the maritime search and rescue centers of Mozambique and Madagascar to dispatch forces for the search and rescue operation.

They swiftly contacted nearby vessels, instructing them to rush to the scene at full speed to assist in the operation. Additionally, they reported the critical situation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the member units of the National Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on Maritime Search and Rescue, and State-owned enterprises such as COSCO Shipping, requesting their cooperation in coordinating the deployment of necessary resources.

After the coordination efforts, the merchant vessel AS Christiana arrived at the scene at approximately 2 am on Wednesday, and rescued all 19 crew members from the life rafts. The cause of the fire and condition of the Apollo Triumph remain unknown.