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Daily Maverick
7 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Piracy decline sparks wave of kidnappings in the Bight of Biafra
A decline in piracy has pushed criminals towards hostage-taking, creating a growing ransom economy in the ocean region from Nigeria to Gabon. Nigerian pirates kidnapped two government officials in Idabato, a Cameroonian border town in the Bakassi Peninsula, on 1 October 2024. One hostage, Ewane Roland Ekeh, was released on 17 March – after six months in captivity in Nigeria. The second, Etongo Ismael, remains in captivity. Since 2021, counterpiracy measures have been in place in the Bight of Biafra (or Bight of Bonny), an ocean region stretching from the Niger River mouth in Nigeria to Cape Lopez in Gabon. This has seen an overall decline in maritime piracy crime, compelling pirates to find alternative criminal activities to support themselves. They have focused primarily on hostage-taking for ransom, the crime to which Ekeh and Etongo fell victim. A rise in hostage-taking incidents in the Bight of Biafra since October 2023 can be associated with its proximity to the Niger Delta, the epicentre of maritime crime in the region, where waters are largely ungoverned. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has reported the presence of Nigerian pirate camps in border areas near Cameroon. This was confirmed by Cameroon's Delta Rapid Intervention Battalion (RIB) commander Colonel Ndikum Azieh, who said there were nine active Nigerian pirate groups operating in the Bakassi Peninsula. Former captives and Cameroonian soldiers told the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) anonymously that the factions operating in the peninsula had established bases near Apka Irok – a Nigerian fishing village across from Kombo a Bedimo, Cameroon. Niger Delta and Bakassi Peninsula These groups have well-developed hierarchical organisational structures. One group, comprising nearly 270 fighters and led by a 'Border King', is organised into nine operational units of about 30 men each, each overseen by a 'general'. These Nigerian groups are known to operate well beyond their home bases, extending their reach to far-off waters, including those of Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Gabon. When not actively engaged in pirating activities, they abduct locals in mangrove regions and on land. Azieh said pirates adapted their tactics based on their targets. For lower-value targets – described as village women and children – kidnappings can happen at any time, often timed after army patrols have passed through an area. For high-value targets, such as government officials, pirates gather intelligence and strike at night with swift boats and teams of about 10 armed with AK-47s or PKM 7.62 machine guns. The operations are usually completed within five minutes. A Bakassi Peninsula municipal official told ISS anonymously that hostages were taken to remote mangroves in Nigeria or fisheries in the peninsula, making escape difficult. This illicit industry generates substantial profits for criminal groups. Reports indicate that in Nigeria alone about $400,000 was paid in ransom to kidnappers between July 2022 and June 2023. The money is divided among various role players, including kingpins, sponsors, group leaders, negotiators, specialised team members, assault teams, camp guards and those providing onshore support. Kidnapping is traumatic for the victims and their families. Moreover, due to the persistent threat, many administrative officials, service personnel and civil servants only stay intermittently on the Bakassi Peninsula, while their families live elsewhere for safety. Thus, they are frequently absent from their official duties, affecting essential services. The kidnappings threaten both local and regional security. The area is a critical shipping zone and plays a vital role in the region's transportation of goods, fishing activities and extraction of hydrocarbon resources. As with local officials, security forces are reluctant to confront the pirates. In Nigeria, security forces sometimes lack essential resources, like fuel, hampering their ability to address piracy effectively. In Cameroon, particularly in towns like Idabato, the police and gendarmerie units are severely understaffed. Cameroon's South-West governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai, declared a total lockdown in the Bakassi Peninsula last October, but this angered local residents, who then couldn't earn a living, and elevated tensions between Nigerian and Cameroonian residents in the area. There is also an absence of effective cross-border cooperation at the tactical level. This is despite a robust political and strategic partnership established under the 2013 Yaoundé maritime security architecture, which created multinational centres for cooperation, and information and intelligence sharing. These security cooperation agreements have not cascaded to lower administrative and security units. RIB soldiers say they are unable to carry out operations against pirates who are often just across the border in Nigeria. While Nigeria has honed its negotiating skills with kidnappers and criminal networks, other countries in the region don't yet have the capacity to negotiate the release of hostages. For example, family sources say Ekeh's release took a while, despite attempts by the local negotiator and Cameroonian security forces. In 2022, Nigeria enacted a law against paying ransoms, while Cameroon insists it 'does not negotiate with terrorists'. However, the reality that ransoms have been paid for the release of Western hostages creates a perception of double standards and fosters feelings of abandonment and hopelessness among local hostages' families. Ekeh's family and local journalists told ISS that his family managed to raise $100,000 from local residents, relatives, colleagues and local elites to pay his ransom. Insecurity in the Bight of Biafra was recently heightened following an announcement by the Biafra Nations League (BNL) – a Nigerian secessionist armed group operating in northeastern Nigeria and the Bakassi Peninsula – that it was launching significant operations in the area. Faced with the continuation and possibly an increase in kidnapping for ransom by pirates and threats from the BNL, states along the Bight of Biafra must actively enforce existing bilateral and multilateral security arrangements. Ensuring these agreements are implemented at the level of local security and administrative units to allow for real-time cross-border security collaboration is imperative. Both policies and operations should aim to address a range of maritime crimes, such as piracy, sea robbery and kidnapping for ransom, akin to Nigeria's Deep Blue Project. Here a regional legal framework allowing for the right of pursuit or creating a combined maritime task force would help foster cooperation across different operational maritime and coastal zones. DM
Express Tribune
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
AI chatbot launched for persons with disabilities
The Special Talent Exchange Programme (STEP) has officially launched Pakistan's first AI-based chatbot for persons with disabilities. This initiative has been developed in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), and with generous support from the European Union (EU). The launch event took place at the National University of Science & Technology (NUST), where representatives from government, civil society, and academia were present. The chatbot is launched under the theme "An Initiative for a Peaceful and Inclusive Society." Designed as a multilingual and accessible digital support tool, NOOR AI is the first-of-its-kind in Pakistan. It addresses the specific needs of persons with disabilities, especially women, who often face systemic exclusion in accessing vital services. The chatbot also offers confidential, rights-based guidance on disability rights, inclusive education, employment opportunities, legal aid, gender-based violence (GBV) protection and awareness around preventing violent extremism (PVE). In his opening remarks, STEP Executive Director, Muhammad Atif Sheikh, called NOOR AI "an empowering digital platform for women and youth affected by disability and marginalisation. Sharing insights from STEP's broader initiative, "Empowering Women with Disabilities in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE)," especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he pointed out how national action plans and CVE policies in Pakistan often overlook disability, despite the double marginalisation that women with disabilities face - both due to their gender and their disability. "NOOR AI is not just a chatbot; it's a peace-building tool. It addresses gaps in digital access, legal awareness, and psychosocial support, all of which are critical to inclusive resilience," he noted. STEP Director Programmes, Abia Akram, emphasised the urgency of disability-inclusive policy reform in Pakistan. She stressed the need to ensure that persons with disabilities are not only beneficiaries but also leaders in digital and peacebuilding spaces.
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Nikkei Asia
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Nikkei Asia
UN seeks to boost fentanyl info-sharing in Asia following Nikkei report
Crime Office on Drugs and Crime official calls Japan 'key partner' for regional strategy Jeremy Douglas is chief of staff to the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (Photo by Takayuki Tanaka) TAKAYUKI TANAKA TOKYO -- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will consider creating a working group with Southeast Asian countries, China and Japan to share information on fentanyl smuggling, a senior official said, following a Nikkei investigation that revealed Japan's role in the global supply chain. The comment was made by Jeremy Douglas, UNODC chief of staff to the executive director, in an interview with Nikkei, which published an investigation last month into a Chinese operation that smuggled precursors for the synthetic drug into the U.S. via Japan. Douglas is a key figure at UNODC and has led efforts to fight the drug trade in Asia for years.
Newsroom
15-07-2025
- Newsroom
Stemming the drug tide at Auckland Airport
The trickle of drugs into the country has become a flood, fed by New Zealanders' appetite for them and willingness to pay. Between January and May this year customs officers nationwide seized more than 1600kg of methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA. About a third of that comes through Auckland Airport – from January 1 until now it's seized 542kg of methamphetamine and cocaine. Today on The Detail we head out to the business end of customs to get the inside view. Customs manager Paul Williams says they're dealing with an increasing number of smuggling attempts, and some of the culprits don't even try to hide it. 'The biggest shift that we've seen is no concealment whatsoever. So we're seeing criminal groups using couriers and you open up the bag and the drugs are sitting there,' he says. Williams puts the change down to criminals becoming more confident. 'It's a confidence they have, with respect to what they're doing and I expect like any business they perhaps operate at a level of understanding of what type of wastage or what type of level of drugs they may lose with respects to their efforts,' he says. Customs manager at Auckland Airport, Paul Williams. Photo: Supplied When Williams started out in the sector a little over two decades ago, drug trafficking was an occasional event, and when it happened the substances were meticulously concealed. But nowadays drugs are found in mail or cargo every day. On just one flight there was a haul of 101kg. Tracking and uncovering the drugs involves casting a broad net. 'It's not just an officer in a booth, we may have a dog operating … we work really closely with international partners around trends, observations, their own experiences and that helps us look at people in advance through the data the airlines have,' Williams says. A large amount of the illicit drug market comes out of parts of South America and Asia, but Williams says that doesn't mean they focus only on people and luggage from those places. 'The key thing to remember is that for New Zealand, we receive multiple flights and multiple vessels from a host of different trade routes and passenger routes … and so criminal groups will always look to try to hide where things are coming from,' he says. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says organised criminal networks are driving the illicit drug trade, with devastating consequences for people and communities around the world. It says stopping drug trafficking requires long-term coordinated action to address supply and demand, and to prevent organised criminal groups from exploiting vulnerabilities. Williams says there's significant investment in offshore operations because the best-case scenario is catching the drugs before they get here. 'It's a real win for New Zealand because, just purely from a fiscal perspective, you don't have a court process, you don't have that lead-in time to the court process, you don't have drugs that you have to store and then eventually dispose of. 'You don't run the risk of those drugs actually entering society and having all the actual harm that comes from the consumption from those drugs,' he says. Williams says the nature of drug trafficking has changed a lot over the years, so reflecting and learning from past cases is essential. 'We've done a lot in the export space … to help and protect the primary exporters of New Zealand, helping them secure their supply chain a bit more and then they get trade-offs through the Authorised Economic Operator programme … faster access to market essentially. 'We work really closely with DHL, FedEx, a host of other facilitators of imported goods and we look to educate them on what it is that we see at the border and we talk to them about exploitation, we talk to them about vulnerabilities within the supply chain. 'The more that they understand how the supply chain works and where the vulnerabilities are the more they are attuned to what's going on and that then results in them talking to us and they can often come to us and say 'We think we've got an issue here,' and we will go in and we'll help them.' Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Yahoo
I lost my daughter to Kpod addiction: Father of 19-year-old shares heartbreak and lessons
SINGAPORE – The last image Mr Delfard Tay has of his 19-year-old daughter Shermaine is a video of her stumbling out of their three-room flat in Tanjong Pagar. She looks unsteady in the footage, as she tries to get up from the sofa she slept on in the living room. It was a familiar sight – and Mr Tay knew she had used Kpod, a type of vape pod containing liquid laced with the powerful anaesthetic drug etomidate. For months in 2024, he had argued with his only child, urging her to quit using Kpods. He knew how destructive substance addiction could be – after all, he had criminal convictions for drug trafficking and other offences. Mr Tay, 43, said his daughter had been under drug supervision for using methamphetamine or Ice, which she had consumed at her boyfriend's home some time between 2023 and 2024. It was her first brush with the law, and she did not abuse drugs after that, he added. She then tried to convince him that Kpods were safe, but her addiction to them ended her life. Mr Tay said with a sigh: 'I wanted to lead by example and tell her to stay away from drugs and Kpods... But it was a bit too late.' The timestamp on the minute-long video, captured by a security camera he had installed in his flat to monitor his grandmother, reads '2.30am, Sept 22, 2024'. At the time, Mr Tay, who is divorced, was at his girlfriend's home. About 90 minutes after his daughter left the flat, Mr Tay received a call from the police. She had been found at the foot of their HDB block. Her mobile phone was recovered from the 18th floor. There was no message or final call, said Mr Tay. A pathology report stated that the teenager died of multiple injuries after falling from a height. 'My mind went blank for 30 minutes when I was told how she died,' recalled Mr Tay. 'I went home to identify her body, still in a singlet and shorts. But when I saw the last video, I knew (her death) had something to do with Kpods.' Mr Tay, who handed the video to the police, declined to share it with The Straits Times. He also has two other videos of his daughter behaving erratically in 2024 while using a vape. Mr Tay said he does not want his daughter – whom he affectionately called Ah B, short for 'baby' – to be remembered as a user of Kpods. Instead, he showed videos of her on TikTok having fun and behaving like a typical teenager. Checks by ST showed she also posted numerous videos of herself using vaporisers, which have been banned in Singapore since 2018. In a May report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said that Kpods sold in Singapore have been found to contain either etomidate or ketamine, a Class A controlled drug. Mr Tay, a manager at a logistics company, said his daughter told him in January 2024 that she was using Kpods. 'I asked her, 'Why are you doing all this?'' he said. 'I told her that after reading health warnings that vaping is unhealthy – why even try Kpods?' She showed him the device, saying: 'When you smoke it, you'll feel high.' 'She knew I was against (substance addiction),' Mr Tay told ST, adding that he did not want her to go down the wrong path like him. When told not to vape, she retorted that he did not understand young people and that he did not trust her. About four months later, the teen was caught on the home's surveillance camera in a semi-conscious state, convulsing. That was the first time they fought bitterly. 'I shared with her my experience with drugs and I told her that after coming out of prison (in 2022), I was never going to do drugs or participate in any vice... I wanted to be a good example for her,' Mr Tay said. 'But she wouldn't listen.' After that, her demeanour changed. She became quieter and seldom confided in him. Looking back on her life, Mr Tay said she lacked family love as he was an 'absentee father'. 'She wasn't looking up to me, but I really didn't know how to care for her as a single parent,' he said. 'My grandma and auntie took care of her.' When his daughter was about 10 months old, Mr Tay was imprisoned for drug trafficking. When she turned 14, he went back to prison. He spent a total of 10 years behind bars – over eight stints – for drug and gang-related offences from the age of 16. 'I'm not proud of it... I know I neglected her a lot of times,' he said. The teenager dropped out of school after Secondary 3 and promoted some products on social media. Mr Tay's story mirrors that of the mother of a 27-year-old man who became hooked on Kpods from October 2024. In an interview with Shin Min Daily News in June, the 56-year-old woman said she had to physically restrain her son after he came down from a vape-fuelled high and tried to jump out of the living room window. Security cameras installed in her home captured the distressing scene. During the violent struggle, her son scratched her neck. The woman, who was not identified, shared her story to remind other parents to pay more attention to their children and seek help if something is not right. In the past two months, netizens have posted numerous videos online showing young people shaking uncontrollably, purportedly after using Kpods. When ST showed Mr Tay a video clip from the internet of three intoxicated youths walking like zombies in Punggol, Mr Tay singled out one of them. He said that whenever his daughter used Kpods, she walked in the same unsteady way, as if her joints were 'jammed'. In the days leading up to her death, she was quiet as usual and Mr Tay did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Although she suffered from an anxiety attack in 2019, there was no indication that she was depressed, according to Mr Tay. Since his daughter's death, Mr Tay has been kept awake on some nights. 'Sometimes I can't sleep. I find myself thinking of her,' he said. 'I will busy myself with TikTok or playing computer games. When I close my eyes, I ask myself, 'Why didn't I do this or that (to help her)?'' Mr Tay will donate some of his daughter's clothes, but will keep her treasured make-up kit, scrapbook, letters and photos. Her birthday gift to him – a luxury-brand pouch and a set of Lilo & Stitch toys – are displayed in his office. Despite his jail time, Mr Tay has fond memories of his daughter growing up – from short breaks in Kuala Lumpur and a trip to Disneyland in Hong Kong after her PSLE. Photos show her smiling widely and, as her father recalled, she was always dancing with glee. In February, Mr Tay added a tattoo to the back of his left hand – an image of Crayon Shin-chan, a popular Japanese cartoon. His daughter often watched the show dubbed in Mandarin when she was a primary school pupil, while waiting for him to return from work. During the interview, Mr Tay sometimes turned silent, with his gaze fixed on the floor. 'I can't understand why she wanted to use this thing (Kpod),' he said. 'But when I think back... it was because of curiosity.' He recalled her saying that her urine would not test positive for any drug content. On Telegram, a post touted a 'convenient' way to get high, falsely claiming that the drugs cannot be detected in urine tests. Some sellers claimed they also sold vape liquid with ketamine. A check by ST found that Kpods cost between $50 and $100. Mr Tay said police investigators told him that no drug content was found in his daughter during a post-mortem, but he did not receive any official document on this. At her three-day wake, many of her friends from church and elsewhere turned up. 'Everyone was asking what happened, but I didn't have answers for them,' said Mr Tay. 'I was angry at first, but I don't blame any of Shermaine's friends for her death.' At the wake, he learnt that one of her friends had died from abusing Kpods in the same week. Mr Tay decided to share her story – and his regrets – so that other parents will know what to look out for. 'Teenagers from age 12 to 15 have access to mobile phones, and they have Telegram chats,' he said. 'Parents need to look into their (children's) mobile phones, know what kind of people they are mixing with, and that's quite important.' Mr Tay also wants young people to learn from Shermaine's death. 'I know you're curious about all these things (like Kpods),' he said. 'But do not try it. Once you cannot stop, you'll be in bondage to it for a long time, and it will not only affect you, but also your family members.' If you have a story to share about vapes, e-mail us at stnewsdesk@ Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction Discover how to enjoy other premium articles here
