We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
By Kelvin Ebiri
Environmental stakeholders have blamed the unchecked rampant crude theft for the thriving of artisanal refinery activities, which now devastate the environment in the Niger Delta.
The stakeholders also noted that the continuing gas-flaring in the Niger Delta clearly underscores the failure of democratic institutions in the country to address the environmental challenges faced by oil-bearing communities in the region.
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Source: guardian.ng
MANILA, May 2 (Xinhua) — The Philippines and Indonesia kicked off on Thursday their joint patrol in the Sulu-Celebes Seas, a move aimed at strengthening security cooperation to combat piracy, smuggling and maritime attacks in the region.
“The main mission is to secure the common border, to curtail maritime crimes, and stop various sea crimes like smuggling and piracy,” Ezra Balagtey, spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said in a statement.
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Source: xinhuanet.com
Malaysia will receive six ScanEagle 2 Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) later this year while Indonesia will receive an equal number in 2022 under the United States funded Maritime Security Initiative (MSI).
US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver said during a media round-table in Kuala Lumpur last week that the Philippines had received six ScanEagle 2 UAS in 2018 as part of the MSI policy.
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Source: defenseworld.net
From algorithms to track “dark” ships smuggling stolen crude oil to an online licensing system to undercut corruption, one Nigerian government agency hopes it can use new technology to tackle theft which has cost the country billions.
But the initiative by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) may be too late to stem the migration of energy majors to the relative safety of drilling at sea, driven offshore by an illegal trade that Nigeria’s sprawling bureaucracy has for decades proved unable or unwilling to tackle.
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Source: hellenicshippingnews.com
By Janene Pieters
A police unit freed two Shell employees who were abducted in Nigeria last week, a Shell spokesperson said on Tuesday. The two are doing well, according to the spokesperson, NU.nl reports.
The two employees were abducted during a work outing at Rumuji in the Niger Delta last week Thursday. Their police escort was killed during the attack. On Tuesday morning the two employees were rescued by a police commando team from the southern state of Rivers.
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Source: nltimes.nl
The six seafarers who were kidnapped at the Bonny Outer Anchorage last month are still missing. Five were Indian nationals, and their families are calling upon the Indian government to intervene.
At 1330 hours in the afternoon of April 19, Nigerian pirates boarded the product tanker Apecus while she lay at anchor just off the coast of Bonny Island, a well-defended oil and gas complex in the Niger River Delta. In broad daylight, the attackers abducted six seafarers and departed. The remaining crewmembers were unharmed, and they navigated their vessel to the Bonny Inner Anchorage.
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Source: maritime-executive.com
By Faustine Kapama
HIGH Court Judge Yose Mlyambina has advised the State to amend the Penal Code of the United Republic of Tanzania, in particular, and the provisions relating to piracy cases in order to draw closer to the developments at the international level.
Dr Mlyambina made the appeal recently while delivering the first judgment in a piracy case, also the first to be determined in the country’s judicial system.
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Source: allafrica.com
By: Betymie Bonnelame and Rassin Vannier
(Seychelles News Agency) – Three out of five suspected pirates from Somalia who were transferred to Seychelles by EU NAVFOR last week were remanded until May 13 by the Supreme Court on Monday.
The EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation Atalanta transferred the five suspects to Seychellois authorities after responding to piracy attacks on 21 April 2019, the local Department of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.
The suspects were transported by Spanish flagship ESPS Navarra and transferred to Seychellois authorities in accordance with a transfer agreement between the Seychelles and the European Union with support from UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Only three out of the five Somali suspects appeared in court on Monday while the other two are receiving medical assistance after they were injured in the piracy attacks.
For humanitarian reasons, Operation Atalanta requested medical assistance from the Seychelles authorities for two of the suspects likely to have been wounded during the piracy attempts.
The case is being heard by Justice Laura Pillay, who remanded the suspects until May 13.
During the court session on Monday, a request was made for appropriate clothes for the detainees and a place for prayer as they are all Muslims.
According to the EU NAVFOR, the incident began on 19 April when five suspected pirates captured a Yemeni dhow off the coast of Somalia. Two days later the pirates attacked the Korean fishing vessel Adria with the dhow acting as a mothership in the Indian Ocean some 280 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia.
On April 23, the EU NAVFOR’s flagship ESPS NAVARRA successfully intercepted and boarded the captured dhow vessel and apprehended the five suspected pirates.
The forces said that this is the first notable piracy incident event since October of last year.
“This incident clearly demonstrates that piracy and armed robbery at sea, off the coast of Somalia, has not been eradicated,” said operation commander Rear Admiral Antonio Martorell.
He added that “the need for a strong maritime security presence in the High-Risk Area remains critical for the deterrence and prevention of future incidents and attacks.”
Source: seychellesnewsagency.com
Despite a $195 million (N60 billion) maritime security contract awarded by the Federal Government to an Israeli firm, HLSI Security Systems and Technologies Limited at the instance of the Ministrer of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, piracy and sea robbery still reign on the nation’s waters while the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) still spends US$174,000 (N53.4 million) monthly to hire security patrol vessels.
This has raised questions about the integrity and impact of the contract in Nigeria’s maritime domain.
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Source: shipsandports.com.ng
Gunman kidnapped three oil workers from Canada, Scotland and Nigeria at a rig in Nigeria’s Delta region on Saturday, officials said — the second abduction in the area in less than a week.
The attackers raided the rig owned by Niger Delta Petroleum Resources in Ogbele, Rivers State at around 8 a.m. local time, said military spokesperson Maj. Ibrahim Abubakar.
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Source: cbc.ca
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