Reporting indicates that a vessel has been boarded 28nm SW Brass resulting in the kidnap of 8 personnel.
Kidnapping
DTG
16 December 2020, 0745 UTC
Position
03° 50N 006°09E
Location
28nm SW Brass
Vessel Dimensions
51.49 x 12.19 m
Vessel Type
General Cargo
Source Confidence Level
High
Incident Overview
Reporting indicates that a vessel has been boarded by an unknown number of attackers 28nm SW Brass resulting in the kidnap of 8 crew.
The vessel has been confirmed as the Cameroonian flagged M/V STEVIA (IMO8107000) in transit from Port Harcourt to Abidjan.
Dryad Analysis
This incident is the 27th kidnapping with a total number of 138 persons kidnapped in Gulf of Guinea HRA in 2020. There have been a surge of incidents in the past 5 weeks, resulting in an increased risk rating for the Gulf of Guinea HRA to CRITICAL on 11th November. This is the 9th incident in the GoG HRA in December.
Vessels are advised to operate within this area at a heightened posture maintaining the highest levels of vigilance whilst implementing full hardening / mitigation in accordance with BMP West Africa where possible. In addition the IMB advises that vessels remain at least 200nm-250nm offshore where possible.