Ship Hijacking in Nigeria

The hijackings by Somalian Pirates have been in the news quite a lot the last year.

We often forget there are other hotbeds for hijackings - Nigeria being one of them.

A tanker was hijacked in May 2009. Here is the account of the hijacking and release by the military.

One note, what I found interesting is the tanker was hired by the Nigerian Oil company to import refined oil into the country. Nigeria is a huge oil producing state, but they have had problems for years not being able to get it refined locally.

From allAfrica.com

Abuja — Napoleon Emphasis was the captain of an oil tanker ship, MC Spirit chartered by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to bring 20,000 metric tonnes of refined petrol (PMS) to the country on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.

I was actually taken by surprise. There was no sign that the militants were there. I am sure they also took the soldiers by surprise. Almost immediately, their boats numbering over 10 were all over the place. Some of them came in boats while those that first attacked us appeared from the nearby bush. They were very many and they appeared from all directions. I tried to manoeuvre my ship but no way. The militants were all over the place. Before I knew what was happening, they were hanging on my ship.

"The day the soldiers went to attack the camp to rescue us, the militants were also taken unawares by the counter-attack. There was confusion there. At first, the militants didn't know whether to run and leave us. They later summed up the courage and asked us to come out to the open and be waving our shirts so that the military helicopters did not kill them. But when they realised that soldiers were on ground and were advancing toward us, the militants took to their heels.

click here for complete article

Comments regarding Somali piracy

My blog post of Nov. 26 was entitledIslamist group threatens Somali pirates

This comment was posted

Comments:

At November 26, 2008 11:36 PM , Blogger kingnour said...

Al Shabab have the same ideaogy that Saudi Arabi GOV have which is salfism and Wahbism. Why they not trying to free the ship that was going to Iran. The reality is that Al Shabab trying to win the side of Saudi just to get money from them to support their UN-Somali goals in Somali. Therefore, the world need to respect our coastal line and the world need to stop dumping waste in our water. The whole world is not talking about this, but they have the ability to talk about Somali pirates since the U.N. was not able to help us solve our problems. However,The Somalis should charge those ship money when they crossing Somali water just to protect the water from waste. There are new illness been reported in Somali due of the waste. I challenged you to do research about my claim.

In my blog posting yesterday I quoted an article from allafrica confirming the statements regarding dumping of waste.

This is something which has not made it to mainstream media, but has been reported quite a bit in various sites. Here is one report in July 2008, from SomaliSwiss Community.

Why Somalis turned to piracy

There are reports that the reason Somalis turned to piracy was due to foreign ships illegally fishing in Somalian waters, destroying the Somali fisherman's livelihood.

From the BBC

The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in Somalia says many of the pirates are former fishermen, who began by attacking ships they argued were "illegally threatening or destroying" their business.

"Businessmen and former fighters for the Somali warlords moved in when they saw how lucrative it could be. The pirates and their backers tend to split the ransom money 50-50," he says.

What's interesting is the comment about the backing of the Somali warlords.

This ties in with comments from allAfrica.com

Who Do the Somali Pirates Work For?

The emergence of strong pirate activities started in Somalia in December 2006, after the transitional federal government of president Abdullahi Yusuf took control of the country from the Union of Islamic Courts. Since then, the country has gradually declined in terms of security and morality.

There is considerable reason to believe that some pirates could be working for the transitional government, since it (government) has not expressed any disapproval of their practice even though it could know who the culprits are.

It's alleged that most pirates who operate along the port of Eyl, (a notorious hijacking point) come from the Majarteen clan from which the president of Somalia, Abdullahi Yusuf, comes. Why hasn't the president used his good contacts with the United States, Britain and several African countries fighting a proxy war on terrorism to flush out the pirates?

On the other hand, it's believed the pirates could be working to restore the country's environment, after reports that some European firms were responsible for dumping toxic wastes in the Somali waters.

To verify this claim, the United Nations envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, confirmed that the United Nations had reliable information implicating European and Asian companies in the dumping of toxic waste off the Somali coastline.

However, to the surprise of many, East African maritime authorities have continued to ignore calls by environmental organisations in Somalia over the abuse of the country's coastline.

Environmentalists believe the Somali coastline has been hugely destroyed as a result. Some have argued that the money the pirates demand is very little compared to the devastation that has been caused by the toxic waste, which includes nuclear waste.

M/V Faina - Pirates withdraw threat to blow up ship

From All Africa, Oct. 16, Somali pirates withdraw their threat to blow up the ship, M/V/ Faina.