Maritime accidents hit 166 in two months

A total of 166 accidents occurred between January February 2021, a report put together by Fleet on has said.

The data compiled by FleetMon, an open database of ships and ports world-wide, estimated 11 ships to be lost during the period.

This represents a 7.79 per cent increase in accidents as 154 accidents were estimated to have occurred between January through February 2020.

Similarly, five ships were lost during the same period of 2019, according to the report titled ‘Maritime accidents monthly report February 2021’.

The data showed that 41 casualties occurred at sea within the period under review while 15 crew members were kidnapped at the same time.

Further checks showed that 86 accidents occurred in January 2021 while 86 accidents occurred in February.

Six ships were lost in January while five were lost in February 2021. Also, the 15 crew members were kidnapped in January.

Dryad Global, in its 2021 annual report, had said Nigeria was good on policy and had failed to tackle the root issues that lead to piracy.

It hailed Nigeria for the launch of the Deep Blue Project in 2019, which aimed to address insecurity and criminality in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone through $195m in resource investments.

It said the policy if implemented, could lead to a reduction in piracy in 2021.

However, it added that Nigeria was only good at mouthing its anti-piracy efforts but poor in implementation.