UAE takes over the chair of IORA

Ismail Sebugwaawo

Piracy, armed robbery, drug smuggling and human trafficking are some of the major challenges faced in the Indian Ocean waters, according to members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).

Speaking at a Press conference on the sidelines of the 19th meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) that concluded in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, Khurshed Alam, secretary of the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and deputy secretary-general of the IORA, said almost 40,000 ships are passing through the waters of Indian Ocean daily.

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Source: khaleejtimes.com

 

Boat Drivers Want Navy, Marine Police On Rivers Waterways

Bakana Boat Drivers Union, an umbrella body of boat operators in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers state, has called on the state government to deploy Navy and Marine police to waterways as a way of curbing sea piracy in the state.

Chairman of the union, Alabo Benson Yellow, made the appeal while speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt on the recent boat attack that led to the killing of three passengers at Bille Jetty by pirates, at the weekend.

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Source: thetidenewsonline.com

Suspected Abu Sayyaf member nabbed, 16 pipe bombs seized during Sulu ops

A suspected Abu Sayyaf member was nabbed by government security forces during a follow-up operation in Indanan, Sulu on Tuesday.

On Thursday, authorities identified the alleged local terrorist as a certain Mang. He reportedly confessed to authorities about some improvised explosive device at a safehouse in Barangay Paligue.

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Source: gmanetwork.com

Sea robbers unleash terror on Bonny, Okrika, Ogoni waterways

N the last one month, sea robbers have unleashed terror on passenger speed boats plying the Bonny, Okrika, Bille, Andoni, Kula and Ogoni river waterways in Rivers State, killing security operatives in the process and carting away personal belongings of boat passengers, including taking away boat engines during such attacks.

Disclosing this to Tribune Online on Wednesday via telephone interview, a member of the Trustee of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Harry White wondered what has happened to gunboats that were recently procured by the Rivers State government to tackle maritime crimes.

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Source: tribuneonlineng.com

ESSZone curfew extended to Nov 22

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 6 — The curfew in the waters off seven districts in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone), which ends tomorrow, has been extended until November 22, said Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah.

Omar, in a statement today said the curfew from 6pm to 6am covered the waters off Tawau, Semporna, Kunak, Lahad Datu, Kinabatangan, Sandakan and Beluran.

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Source: malaymail.com

Oil theft bleeding the country dry

EXACTLY six years after Chatham House, an independent policy institute based in London, the United Kingdom, first alerted the world to the systemic theft of Nigerian oil “on an industrial scale”, the country is still haemorrhaging from the deep cut inflicted by massive oil theft. Instead of witnessing a stem-to-stern effort to check the grand larceny, the situation has profoundly worsened. Although the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation puts what is stolen at 120,000 barrels per day, a new report reveals that an average of 400,000 barrels of crude is purloined on a daily basis.

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Source: punchng.com

 

Somalia to announce plans for first oil licensing round in December

Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Somalia will announce plans in December for its first ever oil and gas licensing round, its oil minister said on Tuesday, as the frontier market looks to attract new investment after decades of civil strife.

At least three mortar bombs were fired last month at Mogadishu’s international airport, the latest attack in a wave of violence that has afflicted the Horn of Africa nation since clan warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991.

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Source: reuters.com

Piracy: Community Chairman Wants Deployment Of Gunboats

Worried by the unabated sea pirate attacks which have resulted in constant fears and loss of several lives on the waterways, Chairman of the Community Development Committee of Bille Kingdom, Dr Somieari Isaac, has pleaded with the government to deploy the Navy to station in the New Calabar and Sombriero Rivers to check criminality on the waterways.

Making the appeal in a chat with The Tide, last Monday, in Port Harcourt, the CDC Chairman noted that several months after the Governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, and the Chairman of DELGA, Dr Tony Philmoore, launched the ‘Operation Sting’ security outfit, the community is yet to see a single gunboat patrolling the waterways.

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Source: thetidenewsonline.com

Pirates kidnap four crew from Greek boat off Togo – Togo navy

LOME (Reuters) – Pirates attacked a Greek oil tanker off the coast of Togo in the early hours of Monday and fled after taking four crew members as hostages, the West African nation’s navy said, two days after a similar attack in the waters of neighbouring Benin.

Of the missing crew members, two are Filipinos, one is Greek and one is Georgian, the navy said in a statement. One security guard was also shot and wounded in the attack, it said. “Monday, 4th of November 2019, around 0300, the tanker boat Elka Aristotle […] was attacked around 18 kilometres (11 miles) from the port of Lome by armed individuals,” the statement said.

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Source: euronews.com