A bloody pirate attack off Benin’s coast is raising concerns that Nigerian pirates — operating on the opposite side of Africa from Somali pirates — are extending their reach and shows that the waters off West Africa are almost equally dangerous, a maritime expert said.

Pirates attacked an oil tanker Tuesday, killing a Ukrainian sailor and
wounding at least two crew members on the Liberian-flagged Cancale
Star, said Benin’s naval chief, Maxime Ahoyo. He said the tanker had 24
crew members, mostly Ukrainian and that some pirates were from
neighboring Nigeria. They did not gain control of the ship, Ahoyo said.

The ship’s Hamburg, Germany-based owner, Chemikalien Seetransport, said
the crew captured one of the alleged pirates and turned him over to
authorities in the port of Cotonou in Benin.

A mix of poverty, politics and easy cash have made Nigeria and Somalia
almost equally dangerous for shipping, Cyrus Mody of the London-based
International Maritime Bureau told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
He said there are possibly as many attacks off Nigeria as near Somalia,
but incidents off West Africa are reported far less often.

Mody said his organization received reports of 40 attacks in Nigeria in
2008 and 23 reports this year of attacks in Nigeria, but believes there
were many more. In comparison, there were 111 attacks by Somali pirates
in 2008 and 202 so far this year, according to the International
Maritime Bureau.

The waters around Nigeria get heavy traffic from oil tankers, cargo
ships, reefers and tugs, and Mody said all are known to have been
attacked. But he said Tuesday’s attack was a surprise because he could
not recall previous attacks off Benin.

“If it was somebody from Benin who has done it then it is concerning,
but if it is the Nigerian pirates who are extending their reach then it
is still concerning because they are going out farther than they used
to,” Mody said.

Mody said the underreporting of pirate attacks off Nigeria may be due
to local vessels fearing more serious reprisals if they report the
hijackings or owners not wanting increased insurance premiums.

Pirates operating out of the failed state of Somalia have mounted a
series of daring attacks that included the seizure of a ship loaded
with tanks, a Saudi Arabian supertanker, and a shipment of food aid
crewed by 20 Americans.

In Nigeria, the allure of piracy is enhanced by oil-company traffic in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

“The Somalis are more into the hijacking of the entire vessel, crew,
cargo, everything,” Mody said, adding that Nigerian pirates instead
often make off with oil workers who are held for ransom and leave the
vessels and their crew behind.

The problem in both countries stems from poverty, pollution and
politics. In Somalia, poor fishermen first started attacking large
foreign trawlers they blamed for devastating the local fish stocks and
ships they believed were dumping toxic waste on their shores.

In Nigeria, angry communities targeted employees of the oil giants who
polluted their rivers with spilled oil and flared excess gas produced
when drilling.

But in both countries, the political message became muddied after ship
owners and employers offered large sums of cash for the freedom of
their workers and vessels. The influx of cash into impoverished
communities encouraged pirates who went after ransoms.

Source: Associated Press

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