The ninth this morning, general cargo ship STEVIA was attacked and boarded by pirates in Gulf of Guinea southwest of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Pirates kidnapped 8 crew members.
The general cargo ship registered in Cameroon, was reportedly sailing from southern Nigeria to Abidjan, Ivory Coast when it was attacked by what is believed to local Nigerian militants.
It was reported that STEVIA ’s speed dropped and was believed to be drifting for about two hours.
An unknown number of perpetrators were believed to have boarded the general cargo ship. The security services report that 8 crew members were kidnapped.
The Nigerian Navy was informed of the incident and in the first piece of positive news, the US government last week supplied Nigeria with equipment to reactivate its Regional Maritime Awareness Capability.
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It is worth mentioning that STEVIA was is the same general area where crew from the Stelios K were abducted a month ago.
Analysis report that this is the twenty-seventh kidnapping incident in the region in 2020 with a total of 138 people having been kidnapped by pirates.
Dryad quotes the Nigeria news media’s reports that the U.S. government transferred equipment and spares to the Nigerian Navy for the facility which was originally donated to Nigeria a few years ago. The U.S. is also assisting with training.
The goal is to provide the Nigerian Navy with better intelligence-gathering capabilities to improve the effectiveness of its patrols in the region.
However,the recent threats by local Nigerian militants which it believes contributed to the recent spike in attacks in the area. They caution that additional incidents are likely.
