Gunmen attack tanker, kidnap Romanian
Dave Shirlaw
Gunmen attack tanker,
kidnap Romanian
Gunmen in speedboats on Wednesday attacked a tanker loaded with 4,000 tonnes of
diesel off Nigeria's coast, kidnapping a Romanian crewmember and badly damaging
the vessel, security sources said. Three private security sources, according to
Reuters, said the MT Meredith was attacked at the Bonny Fairway Buoy off the
oil-producing Niger Delta, a route regularly used by oil services vessels. The
tanker was believed to be travelling from Lagos to Port Harcourt. The joint military
taskforce responsible for policing the Niger Delta could not immediately be
reached for comments. "The ship called for assistance as its engine and
superstructure were reported to have been seriously damaged," one of the
security sources said. The attack is the latest in a series of acts of piracy
off the Niger Delta.
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Doug Smith
It looks as though other well known piracy prone areas are at last
beginning to copy cat Somalia. Not only has the international
community not reacted effectively nor efficiently to that crisis, but
now it looks as though it will spread. This spread will widen the
problem to ever more jurisdictions and further stretch limited
resources.
Doug
On Jan 21, 2:19 pm, "Dave Shirlaw" <djshir...@shaw.ca> wrote:
> Gunmen attack tanker, kidnap Romanian
> Gunmen in speedboats on Wednesday attacked a tanker loaded with 4,000 tonnes
> of diesel off Nigeria's coast, kidnapping a Romanian crewmember and badly
> damaging the vessel, security sources said. Three private security sources,
> according to Reuters, said the MT Meredith was attacked at the Bonny Fairway
> Buoy off the oil-producing Niger Delta, a route regularly used by oil
> services vessels. The tanker was believed to be travelling from Lagos to
> Port Harcourt. The joint military taskforce responsible for policing the
> Niger Delta could not immediately be reached for comments. "The ship called
> for assistance as its engine and superstructure were reported to have been
> seriously damaged," one of the security sources said. The attack is the
> latest in a series of acts of piracy off the Niger Delta.
>
>
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Lemschout
with all the information he collected and with what he observed, the
pirates cannot possibly come from the Somalian coast, but from some
remote places on the coast of Yemen. This does not contradict the fact
that they are originaly from Somali, as they were also used to cros
the Gulf to bring illegal immigrants, they must know all the details
of this poorly inhabited coast.
I was also on a ship similar to the ZHEN HUA 4 where the Chinese crew
succesfully repelled an attack by throwing dozens of Molotov cocktails
at the pirates, even after they had boarded to ship and while they
threatened the crew with their grenade launcher.
It shows that a large motivated crew can do better than all those navy
ships!
Best regards