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Tuesday 10 March 2020

Piracy at Sea is Still a Reality

Piracy at sea is still a commercial reality for shipping and the pirates are going further offshore than ever. They are also more frequently kidnapping crew members to try and collect ransom.

In the past week Tianjin Xinhai International Ship Management has lost contact with it's general cargo vessel "Huanghai Glory" (pictured) after the vessel sent a piracy alert using its Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). 


An unknown number of pirates are believed to have boarded the vessel, which is currently drifting off the coast of Nigeria. The vessel’s manager has not been able to get in touch with the vessel and its 23 Chinese crew members since the initial incident alert, reports maritime security consultant Dryad Global. The Nigeria Navy has been informed and has dispatched a vessel to investigate.

The attack is the third incident off the Nigerian coast in 24 hours, with all incidents happening in close proximity of each other. Five hours earlier a tanker was boarded 45 nautical miles south of Cotonou and this incident itself followed another approach of a vessel 50 nautical miles south of Lomé.

In the first incident, the vessel reported being approached by a skiff containing 9-10 people. In the second incident, the vessel was believed to have been boarded by 5-6 people. It is highly likely that the perpetrators of all three incidents are the same group of pirates and probably originated from within Nigeria.

Piracy off the coasts of Nigeria, Benin and Togo have increased sharply in recent years with more incidents being reported further out at sea.
It is imperative that the shippers always take out marine insurance on each and every shipment to protect themselves from piracy risks.
All for now
Brad Skelton

1 comment:

  1. I always thought, that piracy doesn't exist anymore, because, in present days, everybody wants to secure. Having read this post, I understood, that I was wrong.

    ReplyDelete