Nigerian Rebels Rob Tanker

Published Mar 1, 2006 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

Nigerian separatist militants stormed a tanker ship working in the Niger Delta and took a large sum of cash. The attack took place 12 days after nine foreign oil workers were kidnapped from another vessel.

The militants boarded a kerosene tanker working on the Escravos River in the area controlled by heavily armed "Ijaw" guerrilla fighters. The tanker was intercepted by the rebels; no one was hurt or kidnapped, and the ship was sent on its way.

It was reported that the rebels stole $15,000 in cash, but the militants sent an email with photos of the nine kidnapped prisoners, along with a statement that said they did not take that much cash from the ship and accused the captain of stealing the money for himself and his crew.

The Escravos River connects Warri's refinery and docks to the Atlantic Ocean, but vessel traffic runs past the ethnic Ijaw town of Okerenkoko, where the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is believed to be holding its hostages.

MEND seized the nine oilmen on February 18th during a series of armed attacks on security forces and oil facilities near Shell's Forcados export terminal, 13 miles south of ship boarding and robbing incident.

The attacks forced Shell to suspend production across the western Niger Delta, slashing output by 455,000 barrels of crude per day and cutting exports from Africa's largest oil producer by 20 percent.

The hostages work for the Shell subcontractor Willbros, a U.S. owned engineering firm. They are: Cody Oswald, Russell Spell, and Macon Hawkins from the United States; British security expert John Hudspith, and Bardese Mohammed and Aly Shady of Egypt; Tony Santos of the Philippines, and Thailand's Muado Somsak and Arak Suwana.

Hawkins will turn 69 on Wednesday and suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, but, on Friday, while surrounded by gunmen on board and on the rebel war boat, he told reporters that he had received medication and was feeling well.