PIRATE gangs are giving up cargo theft in favor of “easy money” kidnappings, which can earn them ransom of up to $ 50,000 per victim, a former Royal Marine told us.
Last year alone, seafarers kidnapped 135 people using machine guns and role-playing games – the highest number in ten years – and a record number was kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa.
Experts said The Sun Online pirates would turn to kidnapping because they believe it is a much easier and more lucrative way to make money than stealing cargo.
Pirate kidnappings are terrifying and brutal as the armed gangs storm ships before the victims are frequently beaten and tortured.
The heads of the International Maritime Bureau announced that 2020 saw the highest number of pirate attacks of any kind in three years – with 195 worldwide.
In 2020, 135 people were taken hostage worldwide in 22 different cases, 130 of which were record-breaking in the Gulf of Guinea alone.
The Gulf is shared by the coasts of Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Togo and Cameroon with an area of 888,000 square miles.
James Hilton, a former Royal Marines officer and captain who now runs the maritime security firm Protection Vessels International, told The Sun Online how pirate groups armed with AK-47 view ships and crews as “an easy choice”.
Given the pandemic that has struck the region, he predicts that more criminals will go to sea. Gangs can make around $ 50,000 per crew member released.
There have been calls for a ban on pirate ransom, but with large shipping lines covered by kidnapping and ransom insurance, there seems little chance that this will happen.
Mr Hilton told us, “There are many, many factors that are driving piracy on the rise, and the obvious one is the COVID situation.
“The global pandemic is having a significant economic impact and is likely to leave a short to medium-term legacy in disadvantaged parts of the world.”
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Armed pirate groups are widespread in the Gulf of GuineaPhoto credit: Twitter
Mr Hilton added that piracy ship crews in the area are not the only ones to be concerned.
“Only robberies are anchored at lower levels, and that’s pretty common all over western Africa, it’s not just the Gulf of Guinea.
“You have robbers who board a ship at night with knives and rifles and steal your pocket watch and your golden teeth.”
Munro Anderson, senior analyst at Dryad Global, the maritime security and risk management company, told The Sun Online, “Unlike robbery, kidnappings are carried out by pirates who are part of established organized crime organizations.
“Their preference for kidnapping is based on the relatively low risk combined with the economic incentive for ransom payments.
“These payments averaged $ 50,000 per crew member.”
Dryad Global has revealed the dire conditions some prisoners face – such as being stripped naked and forced to stand in the rain for hours.
Victims can be tortured by firing bullets around their feet as they are constantly told that they will be killed if they fight back and beaten if the hostage negotiations do not please the pirates.
“Every minute, every second is a kind of torture. You only survive,” said one survivor in a report from the Dryad.
The warning comes when 15 Turkish sailors were abducted from the container ship Mozart as it was sailing across the Gulf – with one crew member killed in the raid after it left Lagos, Nigeria.
The gang reportedly used explosives to breach the ship’s protective citadel in a “sophisticated and well orchestrated” attack before leading the crew away at gunpoint after beating them.
The crew members were released last week and are believed to have been held captive in a forest by armed guards – but no further details of their release have been disclosed.
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The Nigerian Navy sends its own armed patrols to watch over the piratesImage Credit: AFP – Getty
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Panther helicopters are used to monitor piracy hotspotsImage Credit: AFP – Getty
The IMF reports warn that all waters in and around Nigeria are now at risk from heavily armed pirates hijacking ships and crews.
It also expressed concern about how the pirates in the region are being better organized.
The report said: “However, the abduction of several crews at such distances shows how well organized pirates are.
“This is an evolving and worrying trend as an average of 25% of the ships attacked in the Gulf of Guinea were hijacked.
“In 80% of the incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, the attackers were armed with weapons.”
Nigeria and other nations on the West African coast are proving to be new important stomping grounds for the pirates.
Hostage hell
US journalist Michael Scott Moore was detained for 977 days after being captured by pirates in January 2012.
Moore’s wrist was broken during the abduction and he watched another prisoner being tortured while he was in custody – pirates hung the hostage upside down from a tree and hit him with a bamboo stick.
“I was just scared,” Moore told NPR. “I was afraid of what would happen.”
He was constantly moved from place to place, including using the captured Naham 3 ship and its crew – some of whom were held hostage for five years – while his captors negotiated his ransom.
They asked for $ 20 million for his release, but Moore’s mother negotiated them for $ 1.6 million.
In September 2014, two and a half years after his capture, Moore was finally released when the ransom was paid.
“People say, ‘You must have been over the moon,’ but any ransom is a dirty compromise, and I gave up hope long ago as a dangerous treat,” wrote Moore in The Guardian.
In a bizarre twist, one of his kidnappers started posting Moore-friendly messages on Facebook two months after his release.
The pirate was eventually arrested and charged with kidnapping, hostage-taking and other crimes.
Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler were also detained for 388 days after being abducted from their yacht by Somali pirates in 2009.
The Royal Tunbridge Wells couple spent their retirement sailing around the world when they were captured after leaving the Seychelles.
After initially demanding a £ 4 million ransom, the two were released after Somali officials negotiated a £ 600,000 release.
Both had health problems at different times and complained of abuse from their captors.
Piracy in the traditional modern homeland of Somalia has decreased in the wake of international efforts with increased security to defeat the crooks.
Mr. Anderson told The Sun Online, “The main difference is the focus of pirate activity.
“East African piracy involved, to a large extent, the intent to hijack ships and crew members, along with the intent to attract large sums of money.
“This was partly because tankers were easily hidden in Somali ports due to the lack of formal port authority or law enforcement.
“This is not the case in West Africa. Offshore piracy is carried out almost exclusively with the intent to hijack the crew’s ransom. The cases of abductions are often limited to smaller vessels such as fishing vessels, which are likely to be used as mother vessels. “
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Modern pirates are often armed to the teeth with machine guns and role-playing gamesPhoto credit: AP: Associated Press
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Hostages in Nigeria are brought ashore, where they are bought back for huge sums of moneyPhoto credit: Reportage Archive – Getty
With attacks increasing in the Gulf, the IMF has called for more to be done to prevent piracy from spreading to other areas.
It states: “While regional and independent international navies stationed in the region have responded promptly to obtain a meaningful response, there remains an urgent need to combat this crime, which continues to directly affect security innocent seafarers. “
The Gulf of Guinea is not only one of the most important trade routes in the world, but also an important energy supplier.
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The Gulf supplies around 40 percent of Europe’s oil and 29 percent of the entire US.
Piracy returned to the UK last year when heavily armed counterterrorism troops stormed a hijacked ship off the Isle of Wigh after stowaways allegedly threatened the lives of the crew.
It’s big business for the criminals – it is estimated that economic losses from piracy run to $ 13-16 billion (£ 10-12 billion) each year.
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