- Title: NIGERIA: Pirates attack ship kidnap 4 foreigners
- Date: 5th August 2012
- Summary: PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA (AUGUST 5, 2012) (REUTERS) SIGN OF ONNE PORT VARIOUS CARS DRIVING INTO THE PORT VARIOUS OF SHIPS AT PORT VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ON THE STREETS AT PORT HARCOURT VARIOUS OF LOCAL MEN READING NEWSPAPERS AT PORT PEOPLE WALKING ALONG STREETS
- Embargoed: 20th August 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Reuters ID: LVA9FQ1Q5J0TM6LGNJZQ40PZ25AZ
- Story Text: Pirates attacked a ship being used by an oil servicing company in the waters off southeastern Nigeria on Saturday (August 4), killing two Nigerian naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the Navy and the boat's shipping firm said.
The four abducted foreign workers on board comprised of a Malaysian, an Iranian, a Thai and an Indonesian.
The attack took place around 33 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny, Nigeria's main oil export terminal. The Netherlands-based Sea Trucks Group, who owned the boat that was attacked, confirmed that four of its staff had been seized and that two other security guards were also wounded in the attack.
"The two remaining injured security personnel are now in Port Harcourt hospital for treatment," spokeswoman Corrie van Kessel said in a statement.
"Sea Trucks Group is making every effort to find out where the kidnappers are".
Security in the Delta has improved since militant activity shut down nearly half of Nigeria's oil output around the middle of the last decade, thanks to an amnesty between various militant factions and the government.
But the situation remains volatile and is inflamed by organised crime and local political rivalries. Piracy and kidnapping in the Delta and offshore are common, and West Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is second only to the waters off Somalia for the risk of pirate attacks, which drives up shipping insurance costs.
These are seen as more of a criminal enterprise, making huge sums for armed gangs, than as anything political. Nigerian pirates usually release kidnapped crew members after their cargo has been looted, rather than hold them for ransom. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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