During the past week OSVs Prince Joseph 1 and Asha Deep have both been attacked in the Gulf of Guinea, bringing the number of local instances of piracy in the last three months to eight, with a total of 20 crew members kidnapped, of which 12 are still in captivity.
Attacks have taken place over an area stretching from the coast of Nigeria to that of Equatorial Guinea, with one as far as 160nm out to sea.
Dryad intelligence director Ian Millen points to the increased risk for senior seafarers, such as Masters and Chief Engineers. “These are the most likely to attract higher value ransom payments, often due to the fact that a large number will be non-Nigerian,” he says. While the kidnap of the US master and chief engineer of support vessel MV C Retriever received heavy media coverage in October 2013, subsequent attacks have received scant attention.
“Shipowners whose crews are targeted are understandably tight-lipped during sensitive ransom negotiations,” says Millen, “but their silence after the event does little to warn other seafarers of this threat or help others to understand the true scale of the problem.
The two incidents this week point to the operation of at least two separate criminal gangs, using the cover of estuaries and the riverine system of the Niger Delta to take their victims into captivity.”
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