Rising Threat: West-African Pirates

Rising Threat: West-African Pirates

צילום אילוסטרציה (מקור: U.S. Navy)

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A rising threat: Piracy along West-African shores * Ships have been warned against gangs of Nigerian pirates * The main targets: Oil and gas tankers

Illustration. Photo: U.S. Navy
Illustration. Photo: U.S. Navy

A new threat looms over global shipping, especially threatening oil tankers: Piracy along the West-African shores. So far most acts of piracy were conducted along Africa’s eastern shores.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) warned commercial liners, urging captains to remain alert and maintain high levels of readiness while sailing along the West African shores, where piracy rates have been rising steadily. This according to an HS Today report.

As a result of anti-piracy actions taken in the Gulf of Aden the piracy rates in East Africa have declined dramatically. Recently the focus has shifted to the other side of the continent – the West African shores, where there’s been a steady rise in piracy since the beginning of the year. One ship, the MT Kerala, was hijacked, and six other ships have been boarded. The tanker Kerala, hijacked in January by Nigerian pirates, flew a Liberian flag. The pirates hijacked the tanker while it was passing Angola and released it after eight days – after transferring all the oil it carried into other ships while still at sea, a severe violation of maritime laws. During the eight days of captivity one of the tanker’s crew members was wounded by the pirates, raising concerns involving the pirates’ willingness to use violence.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

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The IMB warned ships sailing across the shores of Nigeria, Benin and Togo to maintain high levels of alertness while at sea. During 2013 the number of Nigerian pirate attacks reached a new peak – 31 out of 51 attacks were carried out by Nigerian pirates, the highest number of attacks since 2008. Pirate attacks in West African waters comprised 19% of the total number of global attacks in 2013. The most common method used by pirates is hijacking a ship in order to steal its cargo, usually oil or gas. During these attacks several seamen have been injured, since a few incidents involved pirates opening fire.

A UN report shows that piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is the result of criminal activities related to oil. “A significant part of the recent pirate attacks targeted oil tankers. This is facilitated by the booming West African black market oil trade. Piracy would be useless if they didn’t have an infrastructure ready to support trade in stolen oil,” according to the report.

The IMB calls on shipping companies and ship owners who lose contact with their ships to immediately report an act of piracy to the IMB’s center for piracy reports, so that an investigation into the matter could be launched immediately and other ships would receive an early warning, avoiding additional attacks.