Pirates Free Sailors Kidnapped Off Nigeria

Map of the Gulf of Guinea(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pirates have released five Russian and Polish nationals kidnapped from a cargo ship last month off the coast of Nigeria.

The ship's German operator confirmed Tuesday all five crew members were released on May 11, that they are in good health and have returned to their home countries.

The company did not say if a ransom was paid, but ship owners often hand over large sums to free abducted sailors.

The crew members were kidnapped April 25, when 14 heavily armed pirates forced their way into the cargo ship's citadel, a strong room designed to protect the crew from attack.

Piracy is increasing in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea, with gunmen frequently targeting oil ships to steal crude and seize foreign hostages for ransom payments.

The International Maritime Bureau has recorded 19 piracy incidents off Nigeria this year.

from VOA News
May 14, 2013

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Pirates Demand $1.3 Million for Foreign Hostages

Nigerian authorities say a search is underway for pirates demanding a $1.3 million ransom for six foreigners kidnapped from an oil vessel Sunday.

A police spokesman in Bayelsa state said Wednesday that one of the suspected kidnappers called authorities to demand the payment to release the crew members.  He said three of the abducted crew members are from Ukraine, two from India and one from Russia.

The foreigners were taken hostage after pirates attacked their ship off the coast of Nigeria.  The vessel is operated by Century Group, a Nigerian-based oil servicing company.

In an interview with VOA, International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Director Pottengal Mukundan said weak enforcement of maritime laws has contributed to an increase in piracy off Nigeria's coast and across the Gulf of Guinea region. 

"Nigeria has in the past year-and-a-half caught a few gangs and they are in the process of going through their trials at the moment," said Mukundan. "But, a lot more needs to be done and these kinds of crimes which started in Nigeria have spilled over the border into Benin, Togo and lately as far away as the Ivory Coast." 

The IMB says incidents off Nigeria's coast rose from 10 in 2011 to 27 last year.

Earlier this month, gunmen fired on a chemical tanker in Lagos.  A crew member was killed in that incident.

Mukundan says the IMB, which runs a piracy reporting center, is seeing a mixture of attacks along Africa's West Coast.

"You have the armed thefts for the ships," said Mukundan. "You also have the cases where product tankers are hijacked by these gangs in order to steal a small part of the cargo, around 2 - 4,000 tons of product oils from the ship.  And then, the ship and the crew are normally released within 7 to 10 days." 

Mukundan says the IMB has recorded 10 piracy attacks along Africa's west coast so far this year.   

He says a total of 44 crew members have been taken hostage aboard vessels. He says an additional 11 were kidnapped and held at other locations.

from VOA News
February 20, 2013

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Nigeria pirates kidnap 6 Russians, one Estonian

PARIS (Reuters) - Pirates off the coast of Nigeria have kidnapped six Russians and an Estonian during an attack on their ship, Bourbon, the French shipping company operating the vessel said on Wednesday.

Another nine crew members were safe and had reached the Nigerian port of Onne, in the oil-rich Niger Delta, said the spokeswoman for Bourbon, which supplies vessels to the offshore oil industry. The seven were abducted on Monday.

Pirate attacks are on the rise in the Gulf of Guinea, which is second only to the waters around Somalia for piracy.

Usually boats are attacked in order to steal their cargo, after which the crew is normally freed, although kidnapping is also a major criminal enterprise in the waters around the delta, the heart of Africa's biggest energy industry.

Pirates freed a Greek-operated gasoline tanker earlier this month that they had hijacked in the Gulf of Guinea near Ivory Coast. Fuel ships are a favourite target.

Many of the criminal gangs in pirate networks are offshoots from militant groups that used to operate in the delta before they agreed an amnesty in 2009.

In August pirates attacked a Greek-operated oil tanker with a crew of about 20 off the coast of Togo. They released the ship a few days later after stealing 3,000 tonnes of fuel.

from REUTERS
Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:10pm GMT

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Hijacked Greek-run tanker located in Nigerian waters

Map of the Gulf of Guinea, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LOME (Reuters) - A Greek-operated oil tanker seized off Togo was tracked down on Wednesday off the coast of Nigeria under the control of pirates, the ship's operator and Togolese authorities said.

The seizure early on Tuesday of the ship, which is operated by Golden Energy Management, underscored the growing risks to ships in the Gulf of Guinea, where piracy is rising but still not as common as off the coast of Somalia.

"The vessel is presently sailing off the coast of Nigeria under the control of pirates who have the intention to steal the cargo," Golden Energy Management said in a statement.

The firm said they were in touch with a French naval ship that was nearby.

The crew are believed to be in good health and unharmed, the statement added. The Greek coastguard said there were 24 people on board, none of whom were Greek.

Colonel Inoussa Djibril, spokesman for the Togolese army chief of staff, confirmed the ship had been located on Wednesday morning in Nigerian waters with pirates onboard.

According to the International Maritime Bureau's website, there have been eight attacks and attempted attacks off the coast of Togo since January.

from REUTERS
Wed Aug 29, 2012 2:19pm GMT

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Pirates attack ship off Nigeria, kidnap 4 foreigners

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Pirates attacked a ship being used by an oil servicing company in waters off southeastern Nigeria on Saturday, killing two Nigerian Naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the Navy said.

"The incident was somewhere around the Niger Delta, where an oil servicing company was attacked by gunmen. We lost two of our men and four expatriates were abducted, one Malaysian, one Iranian," Navy spokesman Commodore Kabir Aliyu said.

He said a Thai and an Indonesian were also taken, but had no immediate further details.

Security in the Delta has improved since militant activity shut down nearly half of Nigeria's oil output around the middle of the last decade, thanks to an amnesty between various militant factions and the government.

But the situation remains volatile and inflamed by organised crime and local political rivalries.

Piracy and kidnapping in the Delta and offshore are common, and West Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is second only to the waters around Somalia for the risk of pirate attacks, which drives up shipping insurance costs.

They are seen as more of a criminal enterprise making huge sums for armed gangs than as anything political.

Nigerian pirates usually release kidnapped crew members after their cargo has been looted, rather than held for ransom.

from REUTERS
Sat Aug 4, 2012 2:51pm GMT

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