Turkish Suezmax tanker attacked in Gulf of Guinea?

Vessel was attacked at around 0700 UTC Dec 24 in Gulf of Guinea, 220 nm southwest of Bonny, Nigeria. Available information point at Suezmax crude oil tanker ISTANBUL, but ship’s identity not yet confirmed. No other information available at the moment, awaiting ship’s ID confirmation and details.

Tanker is en route from Bonny OPL to Rotterdam (understood in load), since 0700 UTC she turned hard portside and as of 0800 UTC, was steaming south.

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Source: maritimebulletin.net

Coast Guard requests press not to use ‘piracy’ for ‘robbery’

Bangladesh Coast Guard on Thursday requested journalists not to use the word ‘piracy’ or ‘pirate’ while referring to robbery incidents on inland and coastal waterways.

The word ‘piracy’ on sea refers to robbery or criminal incidents outside the maritime boundary of the country while the incidents handled by the coast guards occur along the coast of the country and is thus robbery, said a release.

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Source: newagebd.net

Pirates release 19 crew kidnapped from Nave Constellation

The 19 seafarers kidnapped by pirates from the VLCC Nave Constellation off Nigeria have been released.

Owners Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation and managers, Anglo-Eastern Tanker Management said that the 19 crew, 18 Indian nationals and one Turkish national, kidnapped on 3 December were released on Saturday, 21 December.

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Source: seatrade-maritime.com

Pirates kill one, kidnap four in Gabon capital attack

Pirates attacked four ships in Libreville harbour, government spokesman says.

A Gabonese captain was killed and four Chinese sailors abducted on Saturday in Gabon’s capital, Libreville, following an attack by pirates in the city’s harbour, the government has said.

“Pirate attacks were perpetrated … against four ships,” government spokesman Edgard Anicet Mboumbou Miyakou said on Sunday.

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Source: aljazeera.com

Police kill 4 sea pirates on Delta waterways

Ben Dunno

Four members of a notorious sea pirates that specialised in ambushing passenger boats conveying mostly traders along the Izon-Burutu waterways were yesterday shot dead by mobile police escort team attached to Delta State Government Waterways Security.

Investigations revealed that the gang had in the early hours of the day hijacked a full load passenger boat headed to Burutu from Warri and dispossessed all the passengers of their goods, cash and personal belongings.

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Source: sunnewsonline.com

Piracy: Senate wants Navy funded to procure 150 vessels

The Senate on Wednesday called for proper funding of the Nigerian Navy to enable it procures over one hundred and fifty vessels needed to undertake their constitutional responsibilities of securing the country’s territorial waters.

The call was made to the executive arm of government after consideration of a report of the Senate Joint Committee on Navy, Marine Transport and Finance on the investigation of the illegal activities by Ocean Marine Solutions Limited (OMSL) at the Secured Anchorage Area (SAA) of Lagos Ports.

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Source: pmnewsnigeria.com

Maritime security: Nigeria gets special mission vessel

Anna Okon

Nigeria has taken delivery of the first special mission vessel under its Deep Blue Project. The vessel is an integrated surveillance and security architecture meant to tackle insecurity in Nigeria’s waterways, up to the Gulf of Guinea.

Chairman of the Project Monitoring Team for the Deep Blue Project, also known as Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure, Mrs Olu Mustapha, disclosed this recently in Lagos at a graduation ceremony organised by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency for a new set of Command, Control, Computer Communication and intelligence system operators.

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Source: punchng.com

Nigeria: We Destroyed 378 Illegal Refineries Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers in 2019, Says Navy

By Joseph Erunke

Abuja — A total of 378 illegal refineries were destroy in three states of Niger Delta region in the outgoing year,the Nigerian Navy has said.

This was as it said a total of 62 speedboats operating illegally on the Nigerian waters, were seized with 275 suspects were picked up for involvement in the illegal refineries. The Nigerian Navy,addressing the media,yesterday,in Abuja, named the affected states as Bayelsa,Delta and Rivers.

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Source: allafrica.com

Reps accuse Navy of collecting $50,000 to escort ships

The House of Representatives on Tuesday accused the Navy of collecting $50,000 from ship owners before escorting vessels to their destination.

The House frowned at the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for failing to secure the waterways despite collecting huge sums of money from ship owners for that purpose.

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Source: shipsandports.com.ng

Historical piracy reports appear online

Regular readers will know that I try to ensure all news published here is relevant and factual. In recent days, I’ve noticed that a number of historical articles relating to piracy in West and East Africa as well as incidents of abduction in SE Asia have appeared online.

Often, this occurs because news sites are updating databases or re-loading previously deleted items. However, for anyone searching for open source maritime security items, there’s a clear danger of confusion. Today, I’ve seen several sites post and then delete items which relate to the hijacking of the MV Aris 13, an incident I was heavily involved in and which helped to resolve.

The bottom line is that if you get your intel from open sources, make sure you verify it. If not, you could end up sharing something alarming, but which happened several years ago…