Off Nigeria News

A court in Lagos sentenced 10 men to 12 years in prison on Friday for kidnapping the crew of a Chinese-flagged merchant vessel last year, the navy said, a verdict that officials hope will help tackle piracy in the waters off Nigeria's coast.Federal high court Justice Ayokunle Faji, who also fined each man 250,000 naira ($608) for each of the three counts for which they were charged, said their actions in kidnapping 18 crew from the FV HAILUFENG II in May 2020, were "an embarrassment…

Eagle Bulk Shipping confirmed reports that one of its bulk carriers was hijacked in the Gulf of Guinea, and said the vessel and crew are safe now that the incident has been resolved. Maritime security groups had reported that the Marshall Islands-flagged Rowayton Eagle was boarded by pirates off the coast of Nigeria, and AIS tracking suggests the vessel had been adrift since January 27."As you may have read in the press, the M/V Rowayton Eagle was hijacked about 240 miles southeast of Lagos (Nigeria). We are very pleased to report that the incident has been resolved and our crew are safe and unharmed, and the vessel is fully operational," Eagle Bulk wrote in a social media post on Monday.

Pirates are stepping up attacks on ships in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, defying regional navies. On Saturday, pirates off Nigeria kidnapped 15 sailors from a Turkish container ship and killed one.Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea kidnapped 130 seafarers in 22 separate incidents last year, accounting for all but five of those seized at sea worldwide.Who are the pirates and why are the attacking?The pirates come from Nigeria’s turbulent Niger Delta, experts say. The region produces the bulk of the nation’s petroleum…

Pirates off Nigeria's coast kidnapped 15 sailors from a Turkish container ship in the Gulf of Guinea on Saturday in a brazen and violent attack that was farther from shore than usual.One sailor was killed in the raid, an Azerbaijani citizen, while those kidnapped are from Turkey, according to the respective governments and a crew list seen by Reuters.Accounts from crew, family members and security sources described a sophisticated and well-orchestrated attack on Saturday in which armed pirates boarded the ship and breached its protective citadel…

Maritime security intelligence agencies have reported that the Water Phoenix reefer vessel was boarded Tuesday morning off Nigeria by an unknown number of persons and that two Russian nationals have been kidnapped.Per Praesidium International, a risk consultancy and maritime security company, the incident happened at 5:50 a.m. UTC Tuesday, approximately 34 nautical miles south of Lagos."According to the initial reports, the perpetrators managed to board the vessel and kidnap the master and another crew member, both Russian," Praesidium said, adding that the crew includes 18 seafarers, of which seven Russians and 11 Filipinos. Apart from the two crewmembers who have…

Pirates have reportedly kidnapped 10 crew members from an oil tanker off the coast of Nigeria, maritime security consultancy Dryad Global reported.An uknown number of indiviudals on board a single speedboat are said to have attacked the Panama-flagged Vemahope on April 30, about 178 nautical miles south-southeast from Lagos, kidnapping 10 and leaving four crew on board. The incident took place 39 nautical miles northeast of an incident involving a vessel being fired upon in February and 101 nautical mile northwest of what appeared to be a focus of incident reporting within 2019, Dryad said.If confirmed, the latest kidnapping would be the seventh deep offshore incident within the Nigerian EEZ in 2020, Dryad said.

Pirates have kidnapped 19 crew members from a crude oil tanker off Nigeria in an area where acts of piracy are on the rise, an official with the ship's operator said on Thursday.The loaded vessel, the Nave Constellation, was attacked 77 nautical miles off Bonny Island on Tuesday and 18 Indians and one Turk from the crew were seized, the official said.Seven other crew members remain on board the vessel. Neither the vessel nor the cargo were damaged, the official said.The shipping…

The number of hijackings and armed attacks on ships sailing off Nigeria has dropped according to new figures from the International Piracy Reporting Centre, IMB.Fire shots at ships, assault and hostage taking of crew members. Pirate attacks have long been a serious threat, creating insecurity for both crew members and shipping companies. But new figures now show that the number of pirate attacks is declining.Globally, 78 cases of piracy and armed robbery against ships have so far been registered, compared to 107 incidents in the same period in 2018.For the Gulf of Guinea and off the coast of Nigeria, there have been fewer registered incidents especially in the second quarter of 2019. In the first half of 2019, 21 pirate incidents were registered off Nigeria.

Ten Turkish sailors were taken hostage by armed pirates who attacked a Turkish-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, the vessel's owner said on Tuesday, adding that another eight sailors were left safely aboard.Turkey's foreign ministry said the sailors were seized on Saturday evening. After the pirates left the ship it was taken to Ghana's Tema port, and Ghanaian and Nigerian authorities are working on returning the captured sailors, the ministry said.Shipping company Kadioglu Denizcilik said its ship…

Turning the tide of piracy and attacks is not a difficult operation in terms of military and law enforcement, according to Jakob P. Larsen, BIMCO Head of Maritime Security. The will to act and get both local and international involvement and cooperation on the other hand, may be.“To be honest, unless we see international naval support and close cooperation between international navies and local law enforcement, I doubt that we will see the numbers go down in any significant way,” Larsen says.“Significant capacity building is going on in the region and naval forces are being trained, but these initiatives are all aimed at the longer term and do not solve the problem right now. Therefore, we need to step up the effort.

Piracy increased on the world’s seas in 2018, with a marked rise in attacks against ships and crews around West Africa, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) latest annual piracy report reveals.Worldwide, the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) recorded 201 incidents of maritime piracy and armed robbery in 2018, up from 180 in 2017.The Gulf of Guinea remains increasingly dangerous for seafarers. Reports of attacks in waters between the Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo more than doubled in 2018, accounting for all six hijackings worldwide, 13 of the 18 ships fired upon, 130 of the 141 hostages taken globally, and 78 of 83 seafarers kidnapped for ransom.The region saw a significant new spike in violence in the last quarter of 2018.

Pirates boarded a container ship off the coast of Nigeria, seizing 11 crew including eight from Poland, according the vessel's management firm and Polish state media.The attackers struck the MV Pomerania Sky, bound for the Nigerian port of Onne, early on Saturday and abducted 11 of the crew, Midocean (IOM) Ltd said in a statement on Sunday. The firm added that nine others remained on board and were unharmed."Our priority is securing the earliest release of the eleven crew who have been taken and we are working closely with our partners and the local authorities to achieve that," Midocean said."The families of those crew members taken are being kept informed of the situation," said the company.

The partnership between Damen Shipyards Group and Ampelmann to extend the benefits of motion-compensated gangway systems to fast crew supply vessels has reached a major landmark. At the end of March, the first Damen fast crew supply (FCS) vessel to be fitted with an Ampelmann L-type system began operations in the Gulf of Guinea. This marks a significant step forward in the move towards bringing the latest advances in safe and flexible marine access to a wider array of oil and gas operations. Damen and Ampelmann have together been promoting their integrated solutions combining Damen’s FCS range and Ampelmann’s systems and now, thanks to the vision of Nigerian offshore services company LATC Marine and its client ExxonMobil Nigeria, the first has entered service.

A surge in armed attacks against ships around West Africa is pushing up global levels of piracy and armed robbery at sea, warns the International Chamber of Commerce's International Maritime Bureau (IMB). IMB's Piracy Reporting Center recorded 66 incidents in the first quarter of 2018, up from 43 for the same period in 2017, and 37 in Q1 2016. Worldwide in the first three months of 2018, 100 crew were taken hostage and 14 kidnapped from their vessels. A total of 39 vessels were boarded, 11 fired upon and four vessels hijacked. IMB received a further 12 reports of attempted attacks. The Gulf of Guinea accounts for 29 incidents in 2018 Q1, more than 40 percent of the global total. Of the 114 seafarers captured worldwide, all but one were in this region.

A total of 121 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were reported in the first nine months of 2017, according to the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) latest quarterly report on maritime piracy. The flagship global report notes that, while piracy rates were down compared to the same period in 2016, there is continuing concern over attacks in the Gulf of Guinea and in South East Asia. The increase in attacks off the coast of Venezuela and other security incidents against vessels off Libya - including an attempted boarding in the last quarter - highlights the need for vigilance in other areas.

Borr Drilling, the Norwegian drilling start-up, which listed on the Oslo exchange on Wednesday, said it aimed to expand its fleet, taking advantage of its low cost base. The start-up, launched last year and backed by the world's biggest oil service firm Schlumberger, said it aimed to have the lowest cash break-even costs in the industry and would take advantage of current low prices for rigs. "We have no debt," Borr's Chief Executive Simon Johnson told Reuters after its shares started trading on Oslo's main market. They were previously listed on the over-the-counter market. "That might change in the future, depending on the financing needs, but we can control what we pay for assets," Johnson said.

European shipowners are concerned about the continued piracy, armed robbery attacks and kidnapping for ransom events in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG), and particularly off Nigeria. According to the latest International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy report in total 33 vessels were boarded and four fired upon in the first three months of 2017 worldwide. During the same period, of the 27 seafarers kidnapped for ransom, 63% were in the Gulf of Guinea. In its Global Maritime Security Conclusions adopted 19 June, the Environment Council recognised the problematic situation in the Gulf of Guinea. It underlined the need for regional states to take ownership and adapt their legal systems in order to fight piracy.

Piracy in Somalia is making a comeback and the Gulf of Guinea remains the world’s most active hotspot for crew kidnappings,  UK Chamber of Shipping said quoting latest data. The report said that during the first three months of 2017, armed pirates hijacked two vessels off the coast of Somalia, an area in which previously no merchant ship had been hijacked for five years. Four further incidents in the region were also attempted this past quarter, according to the latest report from the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC). Meanwhile, in the Gulf Guinea, armed robberies and kidnappings were as prolific as ever during the first quarter.

Pirates and armed robbers attacked 43 ships and captured 58 seafarers in the first quarter of 2017, slightly more than the same period last year, according to the latest ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) piracy report. The global report highlights persisting violence in piracy hotspots off Nigeria and around the Southern Philippines – where two crew members were killed in February. Indonesia also reported frequent incidents, mostly low-level thefts from anchored vessels. In total, 33 vessels were boarded and four fired upon in the first three months of 2017.

Bulk of attacks occurred off Nigeria. Armed attacks on ships in West African waters nearly doubled in 2016, with pirates increasingly focused on kidnapping their crew for ransom off Nigeria's coast, a report said on Tuesday. A recent spate of attacks off Somalia, meanwhile, may also indicate a resurgence of piracy in East Africa as a result of less vigilance, the Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) project said. OBP, a project of the privately funded One Earth Future Foundation that encourages cooperation across the international maritime community to tackle piracy, recorded 95 attacks in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea in 2016, up from 54 the previous year.

Pirates have kidnapped seven Russians and one Ukrainian after attacking the cargo ship the BBC Caribbean off the coast of Nigeria, the Russian embassy said on its official Twitter account. The embassy has asked Nigerian authorities to assist in locating the abducted people, it said late on Tuesday. The Nigerian navy and police were not immediately available for comment. The general cargo vessel BBC Caribbean is managed by Briese Schiffahrts. "The armed pirates approached (the vessel) in a boat, captured the crew and left on the boat at the direction of the Nigerian shores," said Pavel Fedulov, the director of a Briese Schiffahrts subsidiary in St Petersburg, according to Russian news organisation RBC. No firearms were used during the attack, he was quoted as saying.

Pirates stormed a container ship off the coast of Guinea on Wednesday, making off with money and some of its cargo but leaving the crew unharmed, the government said. They fired guns and briefly held the crew hostage while they were looting the ship named Wendok, Guinea government spokesman Albert Camara said by telephone. He did not have details of the flag Wendok was flying under, the company running it, what its cargo was nor the nationalities of the crew. He said that Guinea's navy had been alerted but that the pirates had escaped before it could catch them.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday expressed its deep concern over piracy and armed robbery at sea in the Gulf of Guinea, and stressed the importance of a comprehensive approach — led by States of the region, with international support — to address the problem and its root causes. Issuing presidential statement S/PRST/2016/4, the Council strongly condemned acts of murder, kidnapping, hostage-taking and robbery by pirates in the Gulf, and underlined the importance of determining any links between piracy and armed robbery at sea, and terrorist groups in West Africa and the Sahel subregions. It encouraged regional organizations — including the African Union…