By John Ikani
Russian Marines helped Nigeria foil an attack on a vessel in the Gulf of Guinea on Monday.
Heritage Times gathered that the Russian Marines responded to distress calls from the MSC Lucia and Nigerian Navy.
“They rushed to the scene from the Vice-Admiral Kulakov currently operating in the Gulf of Guinea on a three-week deployment,” a statement and video shared on social media by the Russian Ministry of Defence revealed on Wednesday.
How the pirate attack was thwarted
MSC Lucia, a container ship 86 nautical miles Southwest of offshore Agbami Oil Terminal, was heading Southeast across the Gulf of Guinea, from Togo when pirates boarded it.
According to AIS data provided by Pole Star, on the morning of the 25th, about 150 nautical miles to the Northwest of Sao Tome, MSC Lucia slowed from 14 knots and stopped.
The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a system used by ships and vessels for identification at sea.
“The crew of Lucia hid in the engine room after reporting that gunmen in a speedboat were on board.
“Kulakov, an Udaloy-class destroyer, dispatched a Kamov Ka-27PS helicopter carrying sea soldiers,” the Russian Ministry of Defence said.
The statement said the pirates “got into a fast boat and headed towards the coast at full speed” at the sight of the warfare chopper.
The Ministry released images of the ship, the fleeing pirates and their boat as Lucia continued its journey under protection.
What you should know
Nigerian waters are at the center of the Gulf of Guinea, a vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean stretching from Senegal to Angola that’s the most dangerous part of the world for sailors, accounting for almost all kidnappings at sea in recent years.
In its latest report, the ICC International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) acknowledged that the number of attacks against ships globally has fallen to the lowest in decades.
Nigeria reported four incidents in the first nine months of 2021, in comparison to 17 in 2020 and 41 in 2018.
Notwithstanding, Nigeria and West African nations have been advised to increase surveillance of their territories.
