[ad_1]
The Nigerian military said $ 300,000 had been paid to the kidnappers to free 14 crew members aboard the seized ship in February.
The Nigerian army on Saturday freed 14 crew members of a Chinese fishing boat from their pirate captors, after a month in captivity.
Lt. Col. Mohammed Yahaya told AFP news agency that a ransom of $ 300,000 was paid before the crew was released.
The Chinese fishing vessel, 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, one Gabonese and four Nigerians – kidnapped.
The boat, with the crew still on board, was spotted some 110 km (68 miles) from the Nigerian island of Bonny days after the attack.
Maritime security consultants Dryad Global said the hijacked Chinese ship was used as a “mother ship” for attacks on tankers.
Attacking ships to kidnap their crew for ransom has become common in the Gulf of Guinea, which runs from Senegal to Angola, taking the southwest coast of Nigeria.
The perpetrators are usually Nigerian pirates.
The Gulf of Guinea accounted for more than 95% of all maritime abductions last year – 130 out of 135 cases – according to the International Maritime Bureau (BMI), which monitors safety at sea.
The region has seen a 40% increase in piracy and kidnapping-related cases in the first nine months of 2020, according to the IMB.
Experts point to Nigeria’s Niger Delta as a major source of recruiting for hackers. The region’s oil wealth does not benefit the local population, who also find their traditional economic sectors of fishing and agriculture destroyed by pollution from oil extraction.
Plagued by poverty, the local population is fertile ground for pirate gangs to recruit infantry and hide between incursions.
[ad_2]
Source link
