Harboursandport.com: Lagos - A total of 16 seafarers
were kidnapped by pirates off the coast of West Africa, over the past five
days, marking a continuation of rampant pirate activity in the region.
Ten mariners were
kidnapped in an attack reported by Dryad on April 30, when pirates boarded
Panama-flagged oil products tanker MT Vemahope some 178 nautical miles
south-southeast of Lagos.
According to Dryad, the
ship was attacked by a single speedboat with an unknown number of armed
individuals on board. Four crew members remained on board.
“If
confirmed, this incident would be the 7th deep offshore incident within
the Nigerian EEZ within 2020. Total incidents in West Africa have thus far
tracked 2019 trends almost exactly with a partial fall of only 1 incident seen
in 2020 compared incidents over the same time-frame in 2019,” Dryad said.
On May 3, pirates boarded
two fishing trawlers identified as Amerger II & Amerger VII off Libreville,
Gabon. One incident occurred at 20nm from shore and the second 36nm from shore.
“Reports
suggest that the incident involved a single skiff with three engines and
13 persons on board,” Dryad said, adding
that the perpetrators are likely to be from Nigeria.
“It
is understood that following the boarding 6 personnel have been kidnapped, 3
from each vessel. The nationalities of those kidnapped are understood to be 3
Indonesian, 2 Senegalese, 1 South Korean.”
The maritime security
firm added that with the latest incident the total number of kidnapped crew in
West Africa within 2020 was 48.—World Maritime News
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