Armed men have seized a Nigerian tanker carrying 5,000 tons
of jet fuel in the Ivory Coast port of Abidjan, officials say.
Authorities first reported the hijacking of the vessel, with
16 Nigerian crew members on board, on Monday. The ITRI was seized as it was
preparing to deposit the fuel at the port, according to a statement from the
Ivory Coast's government.
Port officials said the tanker's last known position was off
the coast of neighbouring Ghana, but Ghanaian authorities said they had been
unable to locate the ITRI.
Shipowner Brila Energy, a petroleum distributor based in
Nigeria, said it was monitoring the situation.
"The vessel is still missing and the hijackers whose
sole objective is to steal the cargo of Jet A1 on board the vessel are yet to
make any demands," Chairman Rowaye Jubril said.
Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's
pirate reporting centre in Malaysia, said in many previous cases, the pirates
released the crew after they had syphoned out the oil and obtained any valuable
cargo.
Contact lost
The ship initially had trouble docking because a sand storm
reduced visibility, a government statement said. Later, the ship's captain
radioed the port manager to report difficulty manoeuvring.
Shortly afterwards, contact was lost with the vessel. Then
ship consignee Koda Maritime informed port officials that armed men had taken
control of the tanker.
Most hijackings in the region occur near oil-rich Nigeria,
but analysts say co-ordinated efforts by authorities and neighbouring countries
have forced Nigerian pirates to seek easier targets outside their home waters.
"Nigeria and Benin have had joint actions for two
years, and they have been quite successful. We haven't seen the kinds of heavy
attacks that we used to see," said Martin Ewi, a senior researcher with
South Africa's Institute for Security Studies.
"Ivory Coast seems to be attracting those that have
been driven out."
The first recorded vessel hijacking off Ivory Coast was in
October, when 14 men armed with knives and AK-47s boarded a tanker carrying
30,000 tons of petrol. The tanker was released three days later in Nigerian
waters with the crew unharmed, but the pirates allegedly made off with about
2,500 tons.
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