We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
By Gary Dixon
West African piracy remains a threat but attacks are not becoming more frequent despite headline-grabbing abduction stories in the media.
That is the view of Dirk Siebels, senior analyst at Danish security consultancy company Risk Intelligence.
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Source: tradewindsnews.com
MAKKAH: Saudi Arabia has warned the UN Security Council that an “oil spot” has been sighted in a shipping lane 50 km west of an abandoned, decaying oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. Experts fear it could spill 1.1 million barrels of crude into the Red Sea.
The tanker, called the Safer, has been moored near Ras Issa oil terminal for more than five years. The UN previously warned that it could leak four times as much oil as was spilled during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council have repeatedly called on Houthi insurgents in Yemen to grant access the tanker for a technical assessment and emergency repairs.
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Source: zawya.com
By Matthew Ogune
The Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced investigation of eight suspected oil thieves and a vessel, Miracle Worker, handed over to it by the Nigerian Navy.
The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, who disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja, said that the suspects were handed over to the commission by the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base, Bonny, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, after being intercepted for suspected involvement in illegal oil bunkering.
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Source: guardian.ng
A Federal High Court in Lagos has sentenced two oil thieves, Jacob Momodu and Onutu Anthony, to three years imprisonment each.
The convicts were arraigned on a three-count charge bordering on dealing in petroleum product without appropriate license, after they were arrested by officers of the Nigerian Navy and handed over to the Commission for investigation.
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Source: guardian.ng
The Executive Director of the Centre for Maritime Law and Security (CEMLAWS) and a Retired Naval Captain, Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali, has revealed alarming trends in its new report concerning the dark shades of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, indicating an exponential spread of attacks across the Gulf, where Ghana was not spared.
The retired Naval Captain indicated that “as the month of August came to an end, pirates registered their presence in Ghana’s Exclusive Economic Zone, with an attack on the Ghanaian-flag fishing vessel AP 703 where two foreign crew members were kidnapped.”
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Source: ghanaweb.com
By Godfrey Bivbere
THE spate of pirate attacks in Nigeria’s maritime domain has been attributed to dearth of ships to engage the growing number of unemployed seafarers.
Linked to this is also the problem of lack of sea-time training for the cadets being produced annually from various maritime academies in the country.
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Source: vanguardngr.com
BY Desmond Ejibas
The Nigerian Navy has deployed troops on board six warships, including 60 gunboats, in a special military exercise to tackle pirates, oil smugglers and other criminals in the nation’s waters.
Rear Adm. David Adeniran, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command (ENC), Calabar, announced the deployment at the flag-off of the exercise in Onne, Rivers.
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Source: pmnewsnigeria.com
This morning (Tuesday 22nd), MDAT-GoG issued an alert that stated a merchant vessel had been approached by a skiff with 8 persons on board, in position 03°5501N / 001°0300W (121 Nm southwest of Accra).
The vessel was able to evade the suspected pirates and any attempted boarding and was later identified as the MT Hafnia Phoenix by Tradewinds. They reported that a ladder had been sighted in the skiff.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 18th September, 2020) Pirates are threatening to kill the three Russian sailors of Crimean origin who were abducted off the coast of Equatorial Guinea if ransom is not provided, Alexander Molokhov, the head of a working group on international legal issues in Crimea, told Sputnik.
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Source: urdupoint.com
On Sunday 20th, the Joint War Committee reportedly amended its listed risk area within the Gulf of Guinea. Maritime kidnappings have been an ongoing issue for the Gulf of Guinea, particularly in the waters around Nigeria, although other nations have also been affected.
Dryad Global initially reported the new amendments, which are as follows:
a) On the west, from the coast of Togo 6° 06′ 45″ N,
b) high seas point 0° 40′ S, 3° 00′ E
c) and then east to Cape Lopez Peninsula, Gabon 0° 40′ S, 8° 42′ E
Maritime Security News 