We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
Shots were fired at a boxship departing West Africa on Friday in the latest violent attack to hit merchant shipping in the piracy prone area.
Security consultants Ambrey report that within 26 hours of the kidnapping of nine crewmembers from the panamax tanker Alpine Penelope, the panamax container ship Irenes Resolve came under attack 119 nautical miles offshore Nigeria.
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Source: splash247.com
The Federal Government has embarked on measures to ensure a smooth enforcement of the newly enacted anti piracy law as part of efforts to stem criminality on Nigerian waters. This was revealed in Lagos at the annual Strategic Admiralty Law Seminar for Judges put together by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). The theme of the conference was, “Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, 2019: Key to Accelerating and Achieving Safe and Secure Shipping in Nigeria.” it was meant to sensitise judicial sector actors on the import of the antipiracy law.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Directors-General of NIMASA and NIALS, Dr. Dakuku Peterside and Professor Mohammed Tawfiq Ladan, respectively, emphasised the need for unencumbered implementation of the law. They called for cooperation among the enforcement agencies, stressing that stringent penalties await maritime criminals in the country.
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Source: worldstagegroup.com
On Feb. 20th, MDAT-GoG, the agency monitoring maritime crime in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, reported an attack on a vessel in position 05°08’31’’N – 002°06’14.4’’E.
Although the agency has not updated their report since then, media outlets and independent sources now say that at least nine crew (possibly 10, there is some confusion about the actual number) were taken hostage after at least two armed pirates boarded the ship, named as the MT Alpine Penelope.
The incident reportedly occurred some 76nm off Cotonou and the location suggests that pirate groups in the region are moving away from areas where naval patrols have been stepped up in recent weeks, such as off the Niger Delta.
Yesterday’s attack is another example of the changing economies of piracy. Until 2018, pirate groups in the region took advantage of the oil market by hijacking tankers and stealing crude for re-sale either domestically or elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea. However, as oil prices fell, criminal gangs in West Africa reaslised that stolen crude and related products no longer offered a good return on investment and turned to kidnap instead. Media reports suggest a number of the kidnapped crew are Georgian nationals.
By Sulaimon Salau
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), and the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), have decried the high rate of piracy, armed robbery, and other maritime crimes on the nation’s waterways.
The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Peterside, said with the world’s waters accounting over 80 per cent of transportation requirements in the global trading supply chain network across established international routes and trade lanes, the threats of piracy, armed robbery at sea and other maritime crimes remain a global concern.
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Source: guardian.ng
Penetration testers looking at commercial shipping and oil rigs discovered a litany of security blunders and vulnerabilities – including one set that would have let them take full control of a rig at sea.
Pen Test Partners (PTP), an infosec consulting outfit that specialises in doing what its name says, reckoned that on the whole, not many maritime companies understand the importance of good infosec practices at sea. The most eye-catching finding from PTP’s year of maritime pentesting was that its researchers could have gained a “full compromise” of a deep sea drilling rig, as used for oil exploration.
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Source: theregister.co.uk
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has said it received a vessel carrying a huge quantity of crude oil from men of the Nigerian Navy Forward Operation Base (FOB).
The vessel, MT Preye I, was reportedly intercepted by the Navy on Bonny waterways at about 6.15 pm on January 10, 2020. A statement from the public Affairs department of the anti-graft agency said 11 crew members of the vessel were arrested.
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Source: thenationonlineng.net
By Michael Eboh
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Tuesday, decried the growing activities of oil thieves and pirates, stating that Nigeria lost about $750 million to oil theft in 2019.
In a presentation to members of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 13 of the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS) who were on a study tour to the NNPC in, Abuja, Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, described the activities of the thieves and pirates as a threat to the operations of the corporation.
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Source: allafrica.com
