Pirates Seize News

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.

Pirates have seized control of a Somali fishing boat to use as a base from which to attack larger ships, police said on Friday, a week after Somali pirates hijacked their first commercial vessel since 2012. Ten Yemeni crew aboard the boat were dumped on shore, officials told Reuters. "We understand that pirates hijacked the fishing vessel to hijack a big ship off the ocean," said Abdirahman Mohamud, head of maritime police forces in the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland. "They dropped its 10 Yemeni crew and a Somali guard inland and disappeared with the boat together with the food, cook, captain and engineer," he told Reuters. Residents of Marrayo, a northern village near the pirate lair of Eyl, confirmed that pirates from their village had gone to hunt potential targets.

The ICC Commercial Crime Services' International Maritime Bureau (IMB) is warning small tankers to maintain strict antipiracy measures in the South China Sea following a spate of tanker hijackings in the region, GAC reported in its daily Hot Port News report. At least six known cases of coastal tankers being hijacked for their cargoes of diesel or gas oil have been reported since April this year, sparking fears of a new trend in pirate attacks in the area. Up until then, the majority of attacks in the region were vessels boarded for petty theft. The latest hijackings seem to follow a specific modus operandi, where armed pirates seize a small tanker and siphon off its cargo to large bunker barges or other small tankers in a ship-to-ship operation.

Armed men hijack a tankship carrying 5,000 tons of oil from an Ivory Coast port and force it to sail to offshore Ghana. The precise whereabouts of the tanker are presently unknown to government authorities and maritime officials, reports the Maritime Security Review. The Panamanian-flagged vessel Itri was first seized as the tanker was preparing to deposit oil at the port of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital. The Ivory Coast Government stated that the vessel was presently off the coast of neighbouring Ghana and that the relevant aurthorities had been mobilised. Source: Maritime Security Review

Nigerian pirates stormed cargo shilp off Port Harcourt. For first time ever, hostages were taken. Eight armed pirates boarded and started firing toward the bridge and galley on an anchored refrigerated cargo shilp, after ransacking the ship they took the Master and Chief Engineer away with them. One crew member was wounded and one other is unaccounted for.

Pirates off the coast of Nigeria have reportedly taken control of an oil products tanker with about 25 crew members on board, part of a new wave of increasingly sophisticated attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, according to a Dow Jones Report. The report quoted a manager of the International Maritime Bureau, who said that the attack is the seventh in Nigeria this year. According to reports, the ship owner said he hadn't heard from anyone on board. The Niger Delta region has seen a return of piracy in recent months, despite most militants in the region accepting a presidential amnesty in late 2009.

According to a report from Xinhua, a German freight ship was seized on the morning of Oct. 24 by pirates off the coast of Kenya, a spokesman for the German army said. The spokesman said pirates attacked and captured the ship about 1,930 km east of the Kenyan city of Mombasa. The ship belongs to German shipping company Beluga-Reederei, but it was not immediately known how many people were on board, said German media reports. (Source: Xinhua)

According to an Oct. 15 report from VOA News, Somali pirates have hijacked a Singapore-owned and flagged container ship in the Indian Ocean. The MV Kota Wajar was seized early Oct. 15 about 550 kilometers north of the Seychelles islands. (Source: VOA News)

Suspected Somali pirates last week seized a German-owned cargo ship off the coast of the Gulf Arab state of Oman, the first recorded attack in its territorial waters, NATO alliance staff said on Friday, according to Reuters. The MV Charelle was reportedly attacked south of Sur on the Omani coast

According to a report from World News, Somali pirates hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship on April 8, with 21 crew members aboard, a diplomat and a U.S. Navy spokesman said. The Kenya-based diplomat identified the vessel as the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama and said all the crew members are American. (Source: World News)

According to a Reuters report, Somali pirates have hijacked a second ship chartered by chemical tanker shipping group Stolt-Nielsen. Gunmen seized the Stolt Strength in the Gulf of Aden on the afternoon of Nov. 10, nearly two months after they hijacked Stolt Valour, a chemical tanker on its way to India. (Souce: Reuters)

Armed pirates seized a Malaysian palm oil tanker with 39 crew off the coast of — the fourth hijacking in a month, reports said.It was reported that the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in , said the center received a distress signal late about the raid on the MT Bunga Melati Dua and immediately notified Western naval ships patrolling the area. An international terrorism task force dispatched a warship to intercept the tanker, which was heading toward territorial waters. Source:  AP