We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
The Times of India reports today (Feb. 20th) that up to nine thieves boarded the MV Al-Marjo around eight nautical miles off the Pipavav coast on Wednesday 19th. Reportedly, the vessel was heading for a breakers yard when the group boarded her via a tug.
The ship’s crew sent a distress call and the Indian Coast Guard responded, with a patrol arresting the group and seizing their vessel. The matter has now been handed over to the local marine police.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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
Nigerian soldiers torched more than 20 homes in a community in the oil-rich Niger Delta after “suspected pirates” killed six people, security sources and residents said on Tuesday.
Gunmen on Sunday attacked a gunboat escorting a vessel in the volatile waters off the Nigerian coast, a Nigerian security source told AFP. “During the ensuing gun battle, four of the soldiers and two civilians on board the vessel were killed,” the source said.
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Source: bignewsnetwork.com
Anna Okon
The National Council of Managing Directors of Customs Licensed Agents has called on the Federal Government to set up a special committee made up of professionals to offer advice on maritime security.
The National President, NCMDCLA, Mr Lucky Amiwero, made the call in reaction to an attack on a German container ship, Maersk Tema, off Bonny in Rivers State on Friday.
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Source: punchng.com
Author Silja Fröhlich
A vessel operated by Hamburg-based Bernhard Schulte Ship management was attacked by two speedboats in the Gulf of Guinea on Friday.
The Maersk Tema was attacked by two speedboats off the Nigerian coast, a spokesman for Peter Doehle Schiffart and Bernhard Schulte said. The crew followed emergency procedures, but the spokesman did not say whether the pirates had boarded the ship.
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Source: dw.com
By Silja Fröhlich
Maritime piracy has increased off the west coast of Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea, despite preventative measures. The issues lie on land rather than at sea. Is it time for the international community to intervene?
Nine out of 10 maritime incidents of piracy and kidnappings for ransom are reported in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, which stretches 5,700 kilometres (3,500 miles) from Senegal to Angola.
As the number of crew members kidnapped by pirates worldwide decreased, the number reported in the Gulf of Guinea increased from 78 in 2018 to 121 in 2019.
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Source: allafrica.com
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Sim Seung-seob will embark on a trip to Oman and Thailand next week and visit an anti-piracy unit deployed to the Strait of Hormuz, the Navy said Friday.
The six-day visit, which will kick off Sunday, is aimed at boosting maritime security cooperation with the two countries and supporting South Korea’s broader pitch to expand exchanges with Southeast Asia, it said.
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Source: koreaherald.com
Only by seeking to measure maritime security dynamics in uniform and rigorous ways can we begin to understand the scope of the challenges and make progress.
By Jay Benson
In the realm of foreign and security policy, the maritime space is often overlooked. “Sea blindness” is real and it is often reflected in the amount of resources and policy attention paid to maritime security and governance around the world. However, as the maritime space gains attention as a theater for nontraditional security challenges and as space of increasingly important economic potential, so too does the need to empirically measure the scope of the challenges and the progress made in the maritime space. There are a plethora of indices, databases, and empirical reporting available on security and governance issues onshore, which contribute greatly to the understanding of policymakers on these phenomena, but the maritime space has yet to see the same application of empirical methods and analysis.
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Source: thediplomat.com
By Evelyn Usman
The Nigerian Navy has handed over seven Sri-Lankas, 46 Nigerians and two Ghanaians who were crew members on board seven vessels that were arrested between December 3, 2019, and December 30, 2019, over alleged illegal bunkering, to the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for prosecution.
One of the vessels arrested by operatives of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Beecroft, MT ZEEBRUGGE, in which were the Sri-Lankas, sailed all the way from Morocco to Nigeria, to get the product.
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Source: vanguardngr.com
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