We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
By Oludare Richards
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the European Union (EU) have committed €155 million (about $173 million) to address issues associated with maritime insecurity and related clandestine networks of dirty money in West Africa.
The ECOWAS Commission targets the insecurity situation in the Gulf of Guinea, which it said had adverse effect on the health and economic indices of ECOWAS member states.
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Source: guardian.ng
The first leg of the Border Coordinated Patrol of the Philippine and Indonesian navies has ended, with the aim of securing the common border between the two countries and stop maritime and sea crimes including smuggling and piracy.
The patrol ships of both countries were expected to have reached their final point in the territorial waters of Indonesia along the Celebes Sea on Saturday.
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Source: gmanetwork.com
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s dusk-to-dawn sea curfew which ends today (May 10) will be extended for another two weeks until May 26 (Sunday), says Police Commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah.
He said the extension of the 6pm-to-6am curfew was needed due to continuous threats from cross-border criminals, including from kidnap-for-ransom groups.
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Source: thestar.com.my
By Idowu Bankole
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, has said that the agency is determined to run pirates and other bandits operating on the nation’s territorial waters out of business.
While noting that so far the rate of piracy has reduced, Peterside however, assured that the trend will continue as the agency was moving to introduce new measures to tackle all forms of maritime crime.
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Source: allafrica.com
The Indians were reportedly abducted on April 19 when the vessel, the Palau-registered Apecus, was anchored off Lagos in Nigeria.
The owners of an oil tanker, whose five Indian crew members were kidnapped in the waters off Nigeria last month, have established contact with the abductors and are negotiating for their release, people familiar with developments said on Tuesday.
The Indians were reportedly abducted on April 19 when the vessel, the Palau-registered Apecus, was anchored off Lagos in Nigeria. There was no official word on the current status or whereabouts of the kidnapped men.
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Source: hindustantimes.com
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
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
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
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