Two Taiwanese officials were in Madagascar to join a search for eight businessmen from Taiwan who went missing in a boat that reportedly sank off the African nation, an official said Monday.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the fishing boat, carrying eight Taiwanese, one Chinese and six crew members from Madagascar, sank after reporting engine problems on Friday. It quoted the Chinese consul in Madagascar, Xu Jinlong, as saying two crew members had been rescued but that the others had not been found.

The businessmen took the boat out last Friday to inspect a commercial fishing ground off northeastern Madagascar but then lost contact with their families, said Chang Yun-ping, an official with Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry.

The missing Taiwanese include Liu Shou-chih, who has been raising lobsters and eels off the African nation, and seven others who invested in his business, Chang said.

The Taiwanese government has been under heavy pressure from the relatives of the missing men to do everything possible to work toward their recovery, and the dispatch of the two Taiwanese officials was seen as an effort to respond to those concerns.