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| Africa: West |
| Patrol Boat Ambushed in Nigeria |
| 2003-11-07 |
| Yar! We be dread Nigerian pirates! Yar! Pirates armed with automatic rifles and dressed in camouflage fatigues ambushed a police boat in Nigeria’s troubled oil delta, officials said Thursday. Five officers were missing and presumed killed. Nigerian police spokesman Chris Olakpe said the 10-member police patrol was attacked Tuesday on the Nun River near Nigeria’s southern Atlantic coast. Police in the southern city of Yenagoa said the attackers opened fire from their boat in a bend of the heavily forested river as the vessel approached. The police initially waved at the gunmen, mistakenly believing they were soldiers because of the camouflage uniforms, police said. "Hold your fire, you scurvey dogs! Let them get closer." When the gunmen opened fire, the police plunged overboard. "Now, give em a broadside!" Five reached safety, while the others remained missing Thursday. The Niger Delta, where the vast majority of Nigeria’s 2.2 million barrels of oil a day is produced, is prone to outbursts of ethnic and criminal violence. Gangs of thugs — demanding a share of the region’s wealth — frequently target oil companies with sabotage and kidnappings to extort payoffs. Organized criminal gangs daily siphon millions of dollars in crude from pipelines in creeks and marshes of the Niger Delta, posing a growing menace in recent months, oil company officials say. Nigerian authorities believe proceeds from the stolen fuel — which is loaded onto tankers for resale in Europe, Asia and the Americas — has been used to arm rival ethnic militias and criminal gangs in the region. Seems to me like a few aircraft could spot these tankers loading pretty easily. Sounds like somebody’s paying off the right people. Nigeria recently trained and equipped several waterborne police and military units to help protect delta oil installations. Among the units’ acquisitions are three former Coast Guard ships donated by the United States and refitted by Nigeria’s military with artillery and machine guns. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and the fifth-biggest supplier of U.S. oil imports. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 LOL. Too damn funny... and cutting and adding to list of scream-scams. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-7 3:46:15 PM |
| #1 Nigerian pirates? What do they do, send spam e-mails with business offers? YAR, MATEYS, I BE LONG JOHN SILVER, OF THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION, AN' HERE BE A TREASURE MAP OF A CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS DEAL FOR YE. . . . |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-11-7 12:57:41 PM |