The Cameroon army said Saturday evening that its rapid intervention battalion and navy have shot dead six armed pirates off the southern Cameroonian town of Idabato.

The pirates were aboard a flying boat Friday night in the Gulf of Guinea located in the northeastern most part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean when Cameroonian forces on patrol opened fire at them.

Weapons, marijuana and money in Nigerian and Cameroonian currencies were recovered from the pirates, the army said.

It said that the “elimination” of the pirates was a significant step in fighting piracy that has become rampant in the Gulf of Guinea.

Cameroonian businessmen sailing to Nigeria to buy goods are “regularly” attacked by pirates in the international waters, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet