A Fierce firefight between pirates and security guards off
the coast of Nigeria
has left one man dead and two wounded.
Heavily armed pirates using machine guns chased and fired
upon the Honduras-flagged offshore support vessel, PM Salem, in a speed boat
early on 14 December. All the crew, apart from the master and the naval
security personnel, retreated to the 2,943gt ship’s citadel. The security team
returned fire.
A 20-minute battle ensued before the pirates gave up their
attack. In the meantime, one security guard was killed and another two were
wounded. The incident happened about 14nm West Pennington Terminal, 25nm
southwest of a region called Bayelsa, in the Niger Delta. The vessel was on the
way from USARI field to Lagos. The
ship’s owner is listed as Project Masters International of Nigeria and
reportedly chartered to ExxonMobil.
West Africa maritime security analyst
Steve Phelps said that 2-3 incidents have taken place in the same area in
recent weeks, and the same group could be behind all of them.
Phelps also pointed out that the attacks are occurring close
to a region controlled by former warlord Government Ekpumopolo (aka Tompolo).
Tompolo was recently awarded a multimillion-dollar government contract to guard
the Niger Delta’s oil pipelines and installations.
“These attacks will be embarrassing for him,” Phelps pointed
out. In a message sent to the Wall Street Journal in August, a spokesman for
Tompolo said “absolute peace” would be “guaranteed” in the Delta.
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