Tag Archives: Kerala

The World's Most Violent Pirates

The World’s Most Violent Pirates

An undated photo of West African pirates.

An undated photo of West African pirates.

West Africa is home to the world’s most violent pirates—who are now capable of overwhelming armed guards. Last month pirates killed a crewmember during an attack on German-owned oil tanker. Instead of fighting off the pirates, the embarked security team retreated to the ship’s citadel safe room. Read More

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea: Oil Soaked Pirates

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea: Oil Soaked Pirates

Undated photo of MT Kerala

Undated photo of MT Kerala

This is the first of a two-part series on piracy in West Africa.
In the early hours of 18 January 2014 a 75,000-ton tanker, the MT Kerala, vanished off the coast of Angola. A sophisticated pirate gang hijacked the Greek-owned vessel, disabling its identifications system and communication equipment, and painting over its identifying markers.

More than a week later and 1,300 miles away, the hijackers released Kerala off the coast of Nigeria, after offloading 12,270 tons of its diesel cargo to other ships. Read More