West African pirates attack vessels

15 Sep 2011

Pirates operating off the coast of Benin hijacked a tanker and held 23 crew members hostage before locking them in the engine room. The live piracy report from the International Maritime Bureau says that shortly after the pirates had captured the crew, they left the ship. It is not known why the pirates abandoned it.

A second vessel was attacked off the coast of Togo, just south of Lome. The piracy report says that 26 robbers in two boats came alongside the chemical tanker and attempted to board it using portable ladders and ropes. The ship's master raised the alarm, mustered the crew and fought off the robbers.

The group had attempted to board another vessel prior to the attack.

Michael Howlett, deputy director of the bureau's commercial crime services says that there were two incidents and one ship
was hijacked. It has warned that the Gulf of Guinea - and the West African coastline - could become a new hotspot for pirates.

The bureau says that so far this year there have been 326 vessels attacked and 33 hijacked. Somali pirates have attempted to hijack 186 vessels and are currently holding 301 people hostage from the 16 vessels they still control.

View the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre.

Paddy Hartdegen

About Paddy Hartdegen

Paddy Hartdegen has been working as a journalist and writer for the past 40 years since his first article was published in the Sunday Tribune when he was just 16-years-old. He has written 13 books, edited a plethora of business-to-business publications and written for most of the major newspapers in South Africa.