Armed pirates attacked and boarded a refrigerated cargo ship underway off the Niger Delta and kidnapped four crew members on October 19, the U.K.-based maritime intelligence company Dryad Maritime reports.
Information posted by IMB Piracy Reporting Centre also said the attack took place around 36nm South West of Bayelsa Coast, Nigeria. The Pirates armed with submachine guns boarded a refrigerated cargo ship underway. They opened fire, damaged some equipment, stole ship’s cash, kidnapped four crew members and escaped.
Armed pirates attacked and boarded a refrigerated cargo ship underway off the Niger Delta and kidnapped four crew members on October 19, the U.K.-based maritime intelligence company Dryad Maritime reports.
Information posted by IMB Piracy Reporting Centre also said the attack took place around 36nm South West of Bayelsa Coast, Nigeria. The Pirates armed with submachine guns boarded a refrigerated cargo ship underway. They opened fire, damaged some equipment, stole ship’s cash, kidnapped four crew members and escaped.
The remaining crews were able to retreat to the engine room. Details relating to the identity of the attacked vessel were however not mentioned.
Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that two Lithuanian and two Ukrainian seamen were kidnapped out of 19 crew members on board the unidentified ship at the time of the accident.
This is the first incident reported at sea off the Niger Delta in five months, Dryad says, and it has taken place 100 NM further west than the spate of kidnappings which took place earlier this year.
It comes at a time when the Nigerian Navy are conducting increased patrols of the approaches to the Bonny River, and these patrols may have forced this criminal gang to look into operating in this wider area of West Africa.
This area has a recent history of maritime attacks with six reported cases of attacks on vessels, where 13 crew members were abducted for the purpose of ransom, in 2014 alone.
This incident marks a return to attacks for West Africa, an area that has experienced low levels of maritime crime in the last three months, according to Dryad.
The recent reduction in instances of maritime crime in the region was likely related to the increase in Nigerian Naval activities, but this incident is congruent with Dryad’s analysis that their efforts alone would not be able to effectively police the whole of West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.
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