[ 2021-03-07 ]

$300K ransom paid to free 14-man crew on Chinese boat - Nigerian army
The Nigerian army freed 14 crew from a Chinese
fishing boat from their pirate kidnappers on
Saturday, after a month in captivity.

Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Yahaya told AFP news
agency a ransom of $300,000 was paid before the
crew were freed.

The Chinese fishing boat, registered in Gabon, was
seized using high-speed boats off the Gabonese
port of Port-Gentil on February 7 and the crew –
six Chinese nationals, three Indonesians, a Gabon
national and four Nigerians – kidnapped.

The boat, with the crew still on board, was
spotted some 110km (68 miles) from the Nigerian
island of Bonny a few days after the attack.

Maritime security consultants Dryad Global said
the hijacked Chinese boat was used as a
“mothership” for attacks on oil tankers.

Attacking ships to kidnap their crew for ransom
has become common in the Gulf of Guinea, which
runs from Senegal to Angola, taking in the
southwest coast of Nigeria.

The perpetrators are usually Nigerian pirates.

The Gulf of Guinea accounted for more than 95
percent of all maritime kidnappings last year –
130 out of 135 cases – according to the
International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which
monitors security at sea.

The region witnessed a 40-percent increase in
cases related to piracy and kidnapping during the
first nine months of 2020, according to the IMB.

Experts point to Nigeria’s Niger Delta as a
major source of recruitment for pirates. The
region’s oil riches do not benefit the local
population who also find their traditional
economic sectors of fishing and farming wrecked by
pollution from oil extraction.

Beset by poverty, the local population is fertile
ground for pirate gangs to recruit foot soldiers
and to hide out between forays.

Source - aljazeera

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