… As IMB highlights zone’s notoriety for crew-kidnapping***
A 12-year old 7,000 ton tanker, the Pantelena which sailed into the Gulf of Guinea has ‘disappeared’ with its 17 Georgian crew on-board, since August 14, heightening the fears that the dreaded zone is still unsafe, despite the several assurances from the authorities that piracy has been significantly minimized, in the area.
While it could not yet be determined whether the disappearance was as a result of piracy attack, or sequel to a malfunction of the locator beacon, a satellite tracking device, it is however incisive that the disappearance occurred off the coast of Gabon and the Sao Tome and Principe archipelago; though within the Gulf of Guinea, but significantly far from Nigerian waters. Gabon lies on the southern a part of the Gulf of Guinea – the nice bend within the shoreline of West Africa – the place pirates are a significant downside for transport.
Specialist web sites listing the 121-metre (396-feet) ship, mentioned it as dual-purpose oil or chemical tanker, and a Panamanian-flagged, owned by a Greek firm, Lotus Transport Co. Ltd.
Confirming this in a press release issued last Friday, Georgia’s overseas ministry in Tbilisi indicated there have been issues for 17 Georgian sailors on-board and a search operation was being carried out with the assistance of the British maritime authorities.
The owners highlighted that the Pantelena “turned off its locator beacon,” noting that it is usually “the very first thing that pirates do after they board a ship is to chop off this beacon”; even as they noted that it was still too early, to speak about an act of piracy as a result of, since “it may very well be a easy transmission breakdown,” the supply added.
A crew member aboard a ship cruising between Gabon’s capital Libreville and Port-Gentil, the nation’s financial hub, mentioned: “We obtained a misery message over the radio and we alerted the Gabonese navy.”
A Gabonese navy official confirmed that it had “obtained an alert … concerning the Pantelena, however we didn’t have sufficient info to intervene.”
In Sao Tome and Principe, which is situated about 260 kilometres from Gabon, the commander of the native coastguard, Joao Idalecio, mentioned it had dispatched a patrol vessel with a crew of 30 to seek for the tanker.
Maritime safety is a significant concern within the Gulf of Guinea, with greater than 5,700 kilometres of shoreline and 17 international locations from Senegal to Angola, because it has change into an epicentre of piracy since 2016 after the pirate menace diminished off the coast of Somalia.
In February, the MT Marine Categorical, a Panama-registered tanker with 13,500 tonnes of gas, was seized with its crew because it was anchored off Benin. The ship and crew had been freed a number of days later.
Final month, the Worldwide Maritime Bureau (IMB) mentioned that its specialist piracy reporting centre had recorded 107 incidents worldwide within the first six months of 2018.
“All 25 crew kidnappings reported this 12 months have occurred over six incidents within the Gulf of Guinea, highlighting the upper dangers on this space,” the IMB mentioned.
The pirates’ mode of operation has additionally developed from so-called “bunkering” – theft of fabric on the boat – “to a rise within the taking of hostages for ransom”, a Gabonese patrol commander Gael Mbanda mentioned in February.
