Maritime Crime Figures for Q3 2014
Dryad releases their figures for the third quarter of the year.
Maritime Crime Figures for Q3 2014
Gulf of Guinea
The spike in the number of kidnapping incidents that occurred in Nigerian waters in Q1 of 2014 was followed by a break in such criminality, with just one further report being received in the five month period thereafter. However, on 14 August pirates boarded support vessel MV Lamnalco Merlin south of Brass and two crew were abducted for ransom. A similar raid followed on 18 September when pirates kidnapped five crew from MV King Jesus offshore Akwa Ibom State. As is nearly always the case both incidents occurred after midnight in areas just outside of the 12 nm TTW policed by the Nigerian Navy.
In Q2 we reported that some maritime criminality had shifted west to the maritime border area between Ghana and Togo. This continued with the hijacking and subsequent cargo theft of MT Haisoon 6 on 26 July in practically the same area where MT Fair Artemis succumbed to the same fate on 4 June. Nigerian based syndicates conducted both acts of piracy, releasing MT Haisoon 6 from their control southeast of Lagos one week after capture. No further successful hijackings of tankers have occurred, but the intent to do so remains; MT SP Boston was attacked overnight on 27 August off the Ivory Coast.
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Source: dryadmaritime.com
