All sailors are in good health condition, Turkish officials said.

On 23 January, the Liberian-flagged M/V Mozart was sailing from Lagos, Nigeria, to Cape Town in South Africa when it was attacked on January 23, some 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) northwest of the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe. Armed pirates kidnapped 15 sailors and killed one of them.

The three sailors, whom the pirates left aboard the ship, arrived in Istanbul the next day.