Many girls may not go back to school even after lockdowns
Tuesday 27 October 2020
Book Promotion: Angolan scholar Sofonie Dala launches book on Takula Field. Go and pick up your copy on AMAZON!
My book has just been published in AMAZON. I thought you might also be interested in getting your work published. Please click on this link to find my book: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sofonie&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
With the aim of helping thousands of international students, particularly Angolans, who study abroad, the oil and gas engineer, Sofonie Dala has decided to publish her thesis as a book in order to ease the lives of those students who have been struggling to find scientific and academic information about Angola in order to write their course work.
The original version of the book is in Russian language and has been translated into multiple languages such as Portuguese, English, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Finnish, French and other.
The book is available to the public in many online bookstore and has just been offered to all major distributors in the US and Europe such AMAZON and others.
This book was specially published to assist students taking courses in Mining Geology, Petroleum and Gas engineering and other related fields.
My hard work has been recognized internationally and an article about my intelligence was published in Diaspora Network Television (DNT) - a TV channel with an aim of fostering mutual understanding between Ghana and her diaspora for the purpose of collaborating for national development.
Sources: https://www.dntghana.com/2020/07/12/27994/
Please click here to see the beginning of the story: https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2020/07/congratulations-sofonie-dala-launches.html
The electronic version of the book (Russian and English only) is available with 50% off (yes you pay half of the amount).
Please contact the author for more information.
Anheuser-Busch InBev Talent Acceleration Programme 2021 (graduate development and leadership programme) for young African Graduates
Application Deadline: unspecified 
The Talent Acceleration Programme is an intensive 36 month programme which attracts the brightest most driven graduates and nurtures their talent by providing relevant experiences right from the start.
If you want to accelerate your career, build your skills through cross functional development and build your profile to be a future leader the Talent Acceleration Programme is for you!
Frequent evaluation
6 Month cycles
Rotation of work experience and teams
Individual and team evaluations
Future forward development
Cross functional experiences
On the job learning
Coaching and mentoring
Leadership development
Accelerated growth and graduation (Global Management Trainees will be chosen from the TAP Programme)
Accelerated career growth (top performers' programme will be shorter in duration)
Qualification
Recent University graduate; or
No more than 3 years TOTAL of full-time formal working experience by the programme start date. (Internship, vac work, short duration contracts and does not apply
Minimum GPA (Gross Point Average) of 60% and above at university
By programme start completed bachelors’ degree (from a recognised tertiary institution) achieved within requisite timeframe
Legal work authorization (full citizenship) in the country for which application is being submitted
Geographical mobility – you should be willing to relocate throughout your career (a valid passport is required)
Fully proficient in English
Proficiency in Microsoft Office (especially Excel) and ability to quickly adapt to new systems
Click here to apply: https://bit.ly/2Tr4K3U
Federal Government Scholarship Awards 2021/2022 for young Nigerians to Study Abroad.
The Honourable Minister of Education (HME), Mallam Adamu Adamu, hereby invites interested and qualified Nigerians to participate in the 2020/2021 Nomination Computer Based Test (CBT) for the Federal Government Scholarship Awards for:
A. BILATERAL EDUCATION AGREEMENT (BEA)
i) Undergraduate (UG) studies tenable in Russia, Morocco, Algeria, Serbia, Hungary, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Cuba, Romania, Japan, Macedonia; and
ii) Postgraduate (PG) studies tenable in Russia (for those whose first degrees were obtained from Russia), China, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, e.t.c.
UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS:
All applicants for undergraduate degree courses must possess a minimum qualification of Five (5) Distinctions (As & Bs) in the Senior Secondary School Certificates, WASSCE/WAEC (May/June) only in the subjects relevant to their fields of study including English Language and Mathematics.
Certificates should not be more than two (2) years old (2018 & 2019) for Non-African Countries and for African countries the age of certificate is one year (2019) only. Age limit is from 18 to 20 years.
POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS:
All applicants for Postgraduate degree courses must hold a First Degree with 1st Class or at least 2nd Class Upper Division. The applicants who are previous recipients of Foreign Awards must have acquired at least two (2) years post qualification experience or employment practice in Nigeria.
All applicants must have completed the N.Y.S.C. Programme and the age limit is 35 years for Masters and 40 years for Ph.D.
i) N.Y.S.C discharge or exemption certificates only are accepted; and
ii) Evidence of readiness to be released by an employer.
US: Nearly 100,000 evacuated in California as wildfires rage
Fast-spreading wildfires have forced evacuation orders for more than 100,000 people and seriously injured two firefighters in Southern California as powerful winds across the state prompted a power outage to hundreds of thousands of residents.
Some 60,000 people fled their homes near Los Angeles on Monday as the wildfire raged across more than 3,000 hectares (7,200 acres), blocking key roads in Orange County.
The so-called Silverado Fire broke out early in the morning in the foothills of Irvine, 60 kilometres (about 37 miles) southeast of Los Angeles, and quickly spread unchecked, fueled by dry conditions and erratic winds that prevented firefighting aircraft from flying.
“It’s nuts – even inside the car, my eyes, my nose and my throat stung,” said Frederic Tournadre, a French man whose company in Irvine sent all its employees home.
The inferno nearly quadrupled in size by afternoon, jumping a highway and covering the area with a huge plume of smoke and ash.
Fires have scorched more than 16,500sq km (6,400 square miles) – an area equivalent to the landmass of the state of Hawaii – since the start of the year, with thousands of homes destroyed and 31 lives lost.
Cause of the blaze
In a report to the state Public Utilities Commission, utility company Southern California Edison said it was investigating whether its electrical equipment caused the blaze. The brief report said it appeared that a “lashing wire” that tied a telecommunications line to a support cable may have struck a 12,000-volt conducting line above it, and an investigation was under way.
SCE reported shutting off electricity to 21,000 homes and businesses as a precautionary measure in the face of elevated fire risks posed by dangerous winds.
Red-flag warnings for incendiary weather conditions remained in place across much of California due to winds gusting in excess of 129km/h (80mph), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
ome 90,800 residents were ordered to evacuate their homes in and around the city of Irvine as the fire raged largely unchecked through drought-parched brush in the canyons and foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains south of Los Angeles, officials said.
Two firefighters among some 500 personnel battling the flames with bulldozers and hand tools were hospitalized with severe burns, authorities said.
No property losses were immediately reported.
A second Orange County blaze, the Blueridge fire, later broke out near Yorba Linda and has charred roughly 485 hectares (1,200 acres), Nguyen said. Local television news footage showed at least one home gutted by flames.
An estimated 1,170 homes were under evacuation orders from that blaze, the county fire authority said on Twitter late on Monday.
Hundreds of miles away, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) said it had cut off power to more than 350,000 of its customers for the same reason.
Hundreds of miles away, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) said it had cut off power to more than 350,000 of its customers for the same reason.
Wind-damaged electrical lines have been implicated in causing dozens of devastating California wildfires in recent years, and utilities have increasingly resorted to such “public safety power shutoffs” to reduce the risk.
Wind gusts were clocked at up to 143km/h (89mph) in Sonoma County wine country north of San Francisco Bay and were steadily blowing at more than 80km/h (50mph) elsewhere in the region.
“It’s the strongest wind event, and the lowest humidity event, for this fire season,” National Weather Service forecaster Jim Mathews told Reuters.
By midday Monday, PG&E said it was beginning to restore services to some customers “where it is safe to do so,” with most of the shutoffs expected to be ended by Tuesday night as winds abated.
The latest outbreak of fires caps a summer of record California wildfire activity stoked by increasingly frequent and prolonged bouts of extreme heat, drought, wind and dry lightning storms that scientists point to as a consequence of climate change.
Further east, in drought-stricken Colorado, an Arctic storm sweeping the Rockies over the weekend dumped 15 to 40cm (6 to 16 inches) of snow on the two largest wildfires in that state’s history.
“The snow has improved our chances of getting them contained, but we’re still a way off,” said Larry Helmerick, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.
The two blazes combined have so far blackened well over a quarter of a million acres.
____
Source: News agencies
Cameroonian separatists blamed for school terrorist attack
A DNT Exclusive – The gruesome attack on Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba on Saturday that killed children between the ages of 12 and 14 is being blamed on separatist fighters seeking to secede from Cameroon.
The attack killed at least eight children and wounded a dozen after attackers stormed a school in southwestern Cameroon with guns and machetes.
No group has thus far claimed responsibility of the attack but observers point to a campaign by the separatists to boycott schools and businesses, and how they have used attacks such as this to enforce that boycott.
In 2016, long-simmering tensions in the country’s two English-speaking regions in the southwest began to boil over in October when the Anglophone community there staged a series of strikes and demonstrations, protesting against marginalization by the Francophone central government.
The government responded to the protests initially with repressive measures and then later with conciliatory gestures that addressed some of the grievances, but it was not enough to quell the unrest.
The unrest has persisted buoyed by the 38-year dictatorship of President Paul Biya whose reign has been seen as largely marginalizing the Anglophone parts of Cameroon.
The chief of Kumba is organizing a peaceful protest to demand justice for the victims and also for peace. Local celebrities have also joined in delivering messages that promote peace.
One Cameroonian who spoke to DNT on condition of anonymity said he was “perplexed” at why the separatists would kill their own children. He called himself “Ototon” meaning local boy, and expressed hopelessness for the people of the Southwest saying “we have no future.”
The “Ototon” rejected the separatist agenda, but said he would support a Federal system so that the Anglophone parts of Cameroon would exercise more control over their destiny.
According to DNT Correspondent, the justice department has not been able to provide any report on their investigation so far. At this point, there have been only protests and public denouncing of the massacre by public figures and the nation in general.
DNT News with Correspondence reports from Kown Elonge.
Nigeria looting hits capital
Huge crowds ransacked food warehouses in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Monday in the latest looting to hit the country during a wave of unrest.
Lines of residents could be seen carrying away sacks of supplies meant for distribution during coronavirus lockdowns as authorities struggled to halt the pillaging.
“We are hungry, you understand,” a man with a package of noodles in his hand told AFP.
“There is plenty of food in this country but people are suffering. The government is cheating us by parking away this food.”
“We are not stealing, it’s our food and our right.”
The minister for the federal capital, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, told local media that a number of government and private warehouses were vandalised.
The looting comes after days of violent rioting in Nigeria following the shooting of unarmed protesters in largest city Lagos on Tuesday.
The situation has calmed in Lagos and elsewhere but widespread pillaging of government supplies has been reported across the country.
Authorities have slapped round-the-clock curfews on a string of regions and the police chief has ordered the mobilisation of all forces.
Fuelling the anger are accusations officials have horded much-needed food supposed to have been handed out to the poor during lockdowns earlier this year.
A coalition of state governors has denied allegations of graft and said the supplies were held back as a “strategic reserve” in case of a second wave of the virus.
But activists said that authorities needed to be more transparent.
“It’s now vital that the federal and state government clarify why the palliatives had not been disbursed, investigate and prosecute anyone implicated in corruption,” said Anietie Ewang of Human Rights Watch.
Peaceful protests against police brutality erupted on October 8 and quickly turned into one of the biggest challenges to Nigeria’s ruling elite in years.
Chaos spiraled after peaceful protesters were gunned down in central Lagos on Tuesday, sparking international outrage and violent rioting.
Amnesty International said the army and police killed 12 protesters in that incident, and 56 people have died overall since the demonstrations started.
The chief of army staff on Monday insisted soldiers have “continued to exercise restraint” and blamed a “smokescreen of falsehood and deliberate misrepresentation of facts being orchestrated by enemies of Nigeria”.
“We will not allow any force, elements or destabilizing agents in or outside our country to set our beloved country on fire,” General Tukur Yusufu Buratai said in a statement.
Country risk index: Ghana ranks 1st in West, Central Africa
Ghana’s country risk index of 53.9% placed it first, ahead of four top West and Central African countries, according to assessment by Fitch Solutions, research arm of ratings agency, Fitch.
This means the country is the best place to invest in the ECOWAS and Central Africa region since it has a lower risk elements for political, economic and operational.
The country’s high score of both political and operational risk index propelled it to the first position, ahead of Gabon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon.
According to Fitch Solutions, a high score index means a lower risk in terms of investment climate.
The nation scored 69.7% and 72.9% for the short and long term political risk, while its 44.1% operational risk index score placed it higher than the other four countries assessed.
For the economic risk index, the nation recorded 41% and 51.6% for the shorter and longer term respectively.
The country’s economic performance will however trail Ivory Coast- which will become the fastest growing economy this year- and Nigeria in both the short and long term.
However, Ghana’s overall high rank index pushes it as the best place to do business in West and Central Africa.
This is largely because the uncertainty associated with investing here, and more specifically the degree to which that uncertainty could lead to losses for investors is very low.
The country’s economic pointers have looked good this year despite covid-19.
Growth is expected to hover around one percent this year and make it a top performer globally, while inflation and exchange have remained low and relatively stable.
Though the debt level is worrying, it is not likely the nation will default in its loan repayment.
Quarter 2 GDP results
Ghana’s economy contracted by -3.2% in the second quarter of this year, the first time it has contracted since 1983.
According to figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service, the heavy fall was largely attributed to some restrictions on activities in the economy, which virtually came to a standstill during the partial lockdown period, as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak.
The information and communication sub-sector recorded the highest expansion of 74.2%, while the hotel and restaurants sub-sector also recorded the highest contraction of 79.4%.
December 7 Elections
The country will be electing a President and 275 Parliamentarians on December 7th.
This follows the gradual end of tenure of the current President Nana Addo Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is seeking a re-election.
So far, so good as the nation has not experienced any major troubles in terms of the political climate.
___
Source: Myjoyonline
Millionaire Sunak faces demands to reveal contents of ‘blind trust’
Rishi Sunak is facing demands to reveal details of his financial interests today after it emerged he set up a ‘blind trust’ on becoming a minister.
The Chancellor deployed the arrangement, meaning that he does not know how his assets are being invested, when he was made Chief Secretary to the Treasury in July last year.
However, critics say there is still risk of conflict as Mr Sunak – reputed to be the richest MP – is aware what he put into the trust.
It also means he does not have to disclose fuller details of his investment portfolio. The presence of the trust was revealed in the latest register of ministerial interests.
It came as other official documents revealed that he did not take his salary for five months when he joined the Treasury last year. He waived the £34,000 top up to his MP’s salary until just before Christmas.
Mr Sunak is the latest minister to face questions over their use of a blind trust. Theresa May attracted controversy when she made a similar move when she became prime minister in 2016.
And in the mid-1990s the Tories attacked Tony Blair when it emerged he used a blind trust when leader of the opposition, to fund his office.
Abena Oppong-Asare, the shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury, told the Times: ‘Rishi Sunak needs to be completely transparent with the public about whether any of the funds he invested in a blind trust are held in offshore tax havens.
‘Taxpayers paying their fair share expect nothing less.’
Richmond MP Mr Sunak, dubbed the ‘Maharaja of the Dales’, is a multi-millionaire in his own right thanks to his investment career before entering Parliament.
His father-in-law, NR Narayana Murthy, is India’s sixth-wealthiest man thanks to his ownership of multinational business technology giant Infosys.
Meanwhile Mr Sunak’s businesswoman wife Akshata runs fashion label Akshata Designs and is also a director of a venture capital firm founded by her father in 2010. Her shareholding in Infosys alone is estimated at £185million.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: ‘Sunak must own up to how blind this trust actually is. With public trust in this Government plummeting, greater transparency in all their dealings is essential and the Chancellor must show a lead.’
The row came as the Government was at the centre of growing controversy over free school meals over Christmas for the nation’s poorest children.
The government is scrambling to find a way out of the latest bitter wrangle with England footballer and campaigner Marcus Rashford, with Tory MPs furious at the ‘shockingly inept’ handling and threatening to help Labour change the policy.
A petition by the Manchester United striker calling for funding of free school meals during holidays has gathered around 900,000 signatures.
The Chancellor has come in for criticism over multi-billion business bailouts at the same time as ministers are resisting calls for back the schools effort.
Businesses have been pitching in by offering food for distribution to those in need.
Meanwhile, protesters have been leaving empty plates outside local Conservative offices.
Mr Sunak and other senior politicians have been banned from some firms in their constituencies.
Alex Cook, who runs The Mill and Il Mulino in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, penned a withering Facebook post barring the Chancellor and three of his Tory colleagues for voting down the scheme in the Commons last week.
Mr Cook wrote: ‘The Government voted against extending free school meals. This is disgusting! What’s worse Matt Vickers, Simon Clarke, Jacob Young, Rishi Sunak all voted against the scheme. DISGUSTING!
‘All 4 are now barred from The Mill and Il Mulino for life. I don’t want their business.’
The Conservative MPs, who all represent Yorkshire constituencies, have stood by their decision.
Labour’s motion calling for the Government to offer more help to struggling families was defeated by 322 votes to 261, a majority of 61, last Thursday.
Mr Rashford today voiced bewilderment at claims from Matt Hancock that he has been in touch with PM about the free school meals row – amid mounting signs a Tory revolt will force the government to U-turn.
The Health Secretary said Boris Johnson and the England star had been ‘communicating’, insisting it was time for ‘everybody to come together’ over the need to feed poorer children.
Pressed on whether more money could be handed out to support the provision during school holidays, Mr Hancock pointedly failed to rule it out.
He stressed the government’s commitment to ensuring ‘no child should go hungry’, saying it has already handed £63million to councils.
However, Rashford seemed unaware of the contact from Mr Johnson, suggesting on Twitter they had not spoken since a previous climbdown in June.
____
Source: dailymail
Isle of Wight stowaways sparks warning of ‘terrorist’ threat
This is the dramatic moment the captain of oil tanker Nave Andromeda begged for ‘immediate assistance’ during a mayday call after stowaway migrants turned violent during an alleged hijack attempt after the crew threatened to report them.
The skipper can be heard begging for help as he described how the men were running loose around the ship, prompting a ten-hour standoff that only ended when special forces swooped down from helicopters to regain control.
The seven men – who are believed to be Nigerian – were arrested for seizing or exercising control of a ship by use of threats or force and are now being held in police stations across Hampshire.
In heavily accented English, the captain says: ‘The stowaways go outside, I see four person port side, midship, near to the manifold, and I have two of them starboard side on the bridge but cannot coming inside. I try to keep them calm but I need immediately, immediately agency assistance.’
The crew had tried to lock the seven migrants in a cabin after they ‘smashed glass and made threats to kill’ but when this failed he ordered the 22 crew members into the ship’s citadel, an emergency room used during pirate attacks, a source said.
In other radio messages, the captain is said to have claimed he ‘feared for his life’ as the drama unfolded off the coast of the Isle of Wight on Sunday morning.
The crisis was brought to a close when 16 Special Boat Service commandos, backed by airborne snipers, abseiled onto the 755ft tanker from blacked-out Merlin helicopters.
Other troops used grappling irons to climb aboard from rigid inflatable boats in the show of ‘overwhelming force’ that lasted just nine minutes. None of the 22 crew were harmed.
The Nave Andromeda, a Liberian-flagged vessel which was believed to have had 42,000 tons of crude oil on board, docked at Southampton around 2.30am this morning.
Officials today refused to answer questions about whether the migrants were armed and lawyers representing the tanker’s owners insisted the incident was ‘100 per cent not a hijacking’.
However, former Royal Navy Rear Admiral Dr Chris Parry told Good Morning Britain the dramatic events were a serious red flag, and warned: ‘Next time they could be terrorists’.
He said: ‘We’ve got to approach this problem in a much more sophisticated way, we’ve got to up our intelligence. We’ve got to demand more from shipping companies and also from foreign countries with whom we do business.
‘We’re into a whole era now of mass migration and I think that covers a lot of things that we probably won’t want to happen in our vicinity or in our country.’
The Nave Andromeda, which set off from Nigeria three weeks ago, had been due to dock in Southampton at 10.30am yesterday. It sent a mayday signal at around 9am off the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight.
Fears of a Hollywood-style hijacking as seen in films such as Captain Phillips were fuelled by tracking data from the website MarineTraffic, which appeared to show the tanker zig-zagging and going in circles.
Two Merlin helicopters and two Wildcat surveillance aircraft were placed on standby, along with a Chinook at RAF Odiham in Hampshire.
Meanwhile, the Special Boat Service were warned of a ‘perceived serious threat to the vessel and potentially to the crew’.
The elite unit routinely trains for such missions, using Wildcats to fly ahead and create a diversion while Merlins hover over the stern.
The SBS operation began at 7.30pm and ended nine minutes later.
A frigate, believed to be HMS Richmond, was also on standby but not needed.
Richard Meade, of the Lloyd’s List Intelligence maritime service, said he had been told by sources close to the ship’s owners that the crew had tried to detain the stowaways in a cabin.
He said: ‘Seven stowaways were discovered on board the vessel. The crew tried to detain them in a cabin, but the stowaways did not want to be locked away in a cabin and became violent and that raised the security alarm.
‘The assumption the flagged [state] is working on is that these stowaways came from Nigeria, where the destination started for this ship on October 6, and the assumption is they boarded through the rudder trunk of the vessel and have been hiding on the vessel ever since.’
Mr Meade said the crew had been in contact with officials in Liberia, where the ship was registered, suggesting they were still in control of the ship throughout.
He said: ‘I have this information from the Liberian ship register so if the crew and the skipper have communicated this level of detail…that suggests that they were in a position to be in communication and therefore in control.’
He said the working assumption was that the stowaways boarded the 228-metre long, 32-metre wide ship in Lagos, where it had set off from on October 6, and that they were Nigerian.
A source close to the shipping company said that crew had been aware of stowaways on board for a day or two, but that they had turned violent when the crew tried to lock them in the cabin as the vessel approached Britain.
The crew then retreated to the ship’s secure citadel, where attackers are unable to enter, the source added.
Stowaways on board Nave Andromeda made ‘verbal threats towards crew’ but no-one has been reported injured, according to Hampshire Police.
Two coastguard helicopters were scrambled to the scene and were spotted circling the ship on Sunday afternoon, while an exclusion zone of five nautical miles was set up in the area south of Sandown.
Law firm Tatham & Co, which represents the ship’s owners, told the BBC that the incident was ‘100 percent not a hijacking’.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said last night: ‘Tonight we are thankful for the quick and decisive action of our police and armed forces who were able to bring this situation under control, guaranteeing the safety of all those on board.’
Bob Sanguinetti, chief executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping, said: ‘I think this has got all the hallmarks of a situation where a number of stowaways are seeking political asylum, presumably in the UK.
‘At some stage they got aggressive. Clearly no one knew at the time how aggressive they were, whether they were armed or not, what their motives were, because there will have been confusion at that stage.
‘In the discussions taking place between the ship’s captain and the authorities in the UK – both police and the military – they will have decided at some stage the least risky option was to board the vessel using the special forces as it turned out in the end.’
The SBS is the elite maritime counter-terrorism unit of the Royal Navy, with most of its personnel Royal Marine Commandos, whose operations are highly classified and not officially confirmed.
Maritime Risk Expert Christopher Parry told Sky News: ‘This sort of thing is the sort of thing the SBS trained to do. Ever since we had oil rigs in the North Sea this sort of operation has been the bread and butter to the Special Boat Service and specialist commandos.
‘We want to send out a message – don’t mess with us. Don’t try and come into our maritime zone and expect to stowaway, or indeed come in for any other reason, you will be met with appropriate force if necessary.’
A source on the Isle of Wight claimed during a mayday call this morning the captain told an operator ‘I’m trying to keep them calm but please send help.’
The source said: ‘The captain clearly stated he feared for their lives and needed urgent assistance, they needed rescuing… It was desperation, you could hear the fear in his voice.’
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘In response to a police request, the Defence Secretary and Home Secretary authorised Armed Forces personnel to board a ship in the English Channel to safeguard life and secure a ship that was subject to suspected hijacking.
‘Armed forces have gained control of the ship and seven individuals have been detained. Police investigations will now continue. Initial reports confirm the crew are safe and well.’
A Hampshire police spokesman said: ‘At 10.04am concerns were raised to police for the welfare of crew on board the vessel, which was situated approximately six miles off the coast of Bembridge.
‘The vessel had been travelling in the direction of Southampton, having sailed from Lagos in Nigeria. It was reported that a number of stowaways were on board, and they had made threats towards the crew.
‘Following a multi-agency response by police, with support from the military and other emergency service partners, seven people were detained by police. All 22 crew members are safe and well.
‘Police are investigating this incident and we have a number of enquiries to carry out to establish the full circumstances.’
SBS operations are highly classified and not officially confirmed, but when stowaways ran amok on a cargo ship in the Thames Estuary in December 2018, the ship’s operator said they were detained after SBS personnel were airlifted onto the vessel.
The men, from Nigeria and Liberia, waved metal poles and threw faeces and urine after being found hiding on the vessel, which was bound for Tilbury docks in Essex.
The group demanded to be dropped off in Britain. They were arrested and jailed in January for affray offences following a trial at the Old Bailey in January.
Yesterday incident was near to where the 52,000 ton cargo ship the Hoegh Osaka was deliberately grounded to prevent it from capsizing after it began listing as it left port.
The vessel, which was carrying 1,400 cars, including Rolls Royces and Bentleys, became grounded on Bramble Bank in the Solent in January 2015, forcing emergency services to rescue all 25 crew members on board.
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International Day of Clean Energy 2024 | 26 January 2024
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