Maritime Security and Safety
Stella Maris Launches Front-line Safety Kits for Seafarers at Ukrainian Ports Amid Growing Global Maritime Tensions
Stella Maris Launches Front-line Safety Kits for Seafarers at Ukrainian Ports Amid Growing Global Maritime Tensions
Maritime welfare charity equips vessel crews with battlefield-grade medical supplies, multilingual air raid guides and shelter maps as missile and drone attacks on Black Sea ports escalate — with warnings that risks are multiplying across key global shipping corridors including the Strait of Hormuz.
By Raymond Gold | Co-Publisher & Research Reporter, Waterways News, Lagos
Monday, March 16, 2026 | Lagos
ODESA, UKRAINE / LAGOS — In one of the most direct responses yet to the dangerous reality facing merchant mariners in active war zones, international maritime welfare charity Stella Maris has launched a pioneering crew safety kit initiative tailored specifically for seafarers calling at Ukrainian ports — where missile and drone strikes have become a recurring threat to ships and the men and women who crew them.
The kits, funded through a partnership with Norwegian war risk insurer Den Norske Krigsforsikring for Skib (DNK), represent a tangible acknowledgement that thousands of seafarers continue to transit some of the world’s most dangerous maritime corridors every month — often with little more than instinct and experience to guide them when the sirens begin to wail.
What Is Inside the Kit
Each crew safety kit has been assembled with battlefield-grade medical priorities in mind. The medical components include haemostatic tourniquets — the type routinely used by combat medics to halt life-threatening limb bleeding — as well as pressure bandages and burn treatment supplies designed to manage flash burns, a common injury type in blast and explosion scenarios.
Beyond the medical supplies, the kit addresses a gap that Stella Maris port chaplains have repeatedly observed at Ukrainian docks: crews arriving onboard without any knowledge of local emergency procedures. The kits therefore include printed step-by-step protocols to follow during an air raid alert, detailed maps marking the nearest public shelters, and information stickers formatted for display on ship bulkheads — ensuring critical guidance is visible at a glance even in conditions of extreme stress and time pressure.
Crucially, all instructional materials are multilingual, recognising that a typical vessel calling at Odesa or other Ukrainian ports may carry a crew drawn from the Philippines, India, Georgia, Turkey, Egypt, or a dozen other seafaring nations.
‘Preparedness Is Often the Only Thing You Can Control’
Father Alexander Smerechynskyy, Stella Maris Ukraine National Director and Odesa Port Chaplain, has been present for the harrowing reality that prompted the kits’ development. Stationed at one of the Black Sea’s most strategic and most targeted ports, he has watched foreign mariners disembark into a city that has endured repeated aerial bombardment, often bewildered by the sudden wail of air raid sirens and unsure where to run.
“Many overseas crews arrive without clear instructions on what to do during an air raid. In a war zone, preparedness is often the only thing you can control, and it can be the difference between life and death.”— Father Alexander Smerechynskyy, Stella Maris Ukraine National Director & Odesa Port Chaplain
Father Smerechynskyy stressed that the kit is more than a collection of objects. “Our safety kits provide not only essential medical equipment but also clear multilingual instructions, maps to shelters, and QR links to emergency guidance,” he said. “It is not just a set of items. It is a practical safety system designed to reduce panic and increase the chances of survival during an attack.”
DNK Funding and the Broader Strategic Context
The initiative has been made possible through funding from DNK — Den Norske Krigsforsikring for Skib — Norway’s specialist marine war risk insurer, which underwrites vessels trading into conflict-affected zones across the globe. DNK’s financial backing has enabled Stella Maris to produce and distribute the first wave of safety kits to ships currently calling at Ukrainian ports, with further distribution expected as demand grows.
The timing of the launch is significant. While the Russia-Ukraine war has dominated global maritime risk discourse since February 2022, the industry is simultaneously grappling with escalating tensions in multiple other critical corridors. In the Red Sea, Houthi missile and drone attacks have forced dozens of major shipping lines to abandon the Suez Canal route entirely, pushing vessels on costly and time-consuming diversions around the Cape of Good Hope. In the Gulf, jitters around the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow chokepoint through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil passes — continue to unsettle operators and insurers alike.
Stella Maris CEO: Seafarers Are on the Frontline of Conflicts They Didn’t Choose
Tim Hill, Chief Executive of Stella Maris UK, placed the Ukraine initiative within this wider landscape of growing danger for the maritime workforce — a largely invisible population that keeps global trade flowing even when the world around them descends into conflict.
“With geopolitical tensions increasing in several key shipping routes, including the current situation around the Strait of Hormuz, the risks faced by seafarers are growing. Crews are often on the frontline of global conflicts they have no part in. That makes practical preparation and clear safety guidance more important than ever for seafarers operating in high-risk regions.” — Tim Hill, CEO, Stella Maris UK
Hill’s remarks carry particular weight given the scale of the seafarer welfare crisis unfolding quietly at sea. Maritime labour experts estimate that at any given time, several hundred commercial vessels are transiting regions designated as high-risk zones by war risk underwriters — exposing tens of thousands of seafarers, the majority from developing nations, to dangers that their shore-based employers are often slow to adequately acknowledge or prepare them for.
Implications for Nigerian and West African Shipping
For Nigeria and West Africa’s maritime sector, the Stella Maris initiative serves as both a model and a reminder. Nigeria remains one of the most significant sources of maritime labour on the African continent, and a growing number of Nigerian seafarers serve aboard vessels engaged in deep-sea trades that routinely pass through or near conflict-affected waters. Industry observers have long called for shipowners and manning agencies to do more to equip Nigerian crew members with the safety awareness, protective gear, and emergency protocols necessary to survive in high-risk environments.
Port chaplaincy organisations with a presence in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Warri are expected to watch the Stella Maris Ukraine model closely, as the Gulf of Guinea itself remains a zone of persistent maritime insecurity — albeit from piracy and armed robbery at sea rather than state-sponsored aerial bombardment.
A Practical Safety System for a Dangerous Age
The first wave of Stella Maris crew safety kits is already being distributed to vessels calling at Ukrainian ports. The charity has indicated that distribution will continue and potentially expand depending on available funding and demand from operators in other high-risk zones.
In an era when container ships are dodging missiles over the Black Sea and tankers are rerouting around the Red Sea to avoid drone strikes, the humble safety kit — with its tourniquet, its burn dressing, its hand-drawn map to the nearest air raid shelter — has become a symbol of a maritime industry still grappling with what it truly means to keep its most essential workers safe.
Stella Maris is the Catholic Church’s international seafarer welfare charity, operating across more than 300 ports globally. It provides pastoral, practical, and welfare support to seafarers of all faiths and nationalities.
Den Norske Krigsforsikring for Skib (DNK) is a Norwegian mutual war risk insurer specializing in hull and cargo war risk coverage for vessels operating in conflict-affected regions.
Maritime Security and Safety
Shipping Lines Hail Security Gains as US Lifts 12-Year Condition of Entry on Nigerian Vessels
Shipping Lines Hail Security Gains as US Lifts 12-Year Condition of Entry on Nigerian Vessels
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
International shipping lines operating in Nigeria have welcomed the United States Coast Guard’s (USCG) decision to remove the 12-year Condition of Entry (CoE) restriction on vessels arriving in the US from Nigerian ports, describing it as evidence of the country’s improved maritime security standing.
The CoE, in force since 2014, subjected vessels that had called at Nigerian ports within their previous five port calls to additional security checks and enhanced scrutiny before US entry. Its removal ends over a decade of extra costs, delays and paperwork for operators trading between Nigeria and the US.
Maersk’s Terminal Planning Lead for West Africa, Srijesh Subramanian, said the move would benefit both importers and exporters given the volume of Nigerian trade with the US, and would likely embolden shipping companies to expand their services. He read the decision as a signal that Nigeria now looks like a safer environment than previously perceived.
Ocean Network Express’s Nigeria Director, Stefan Pedersen, credited the outcome to NIMASA’s sustained work, though he noted ONE has no direct US sailings and so is not directly affected. He expects the removal of restrictions to still ease trade generally for lines that do run direct US services.
Pacific International Lines’ Managing Director, Ugo Opiah, framed the lifting as an image win: qualifying for US standards marks a country as a high-integrity player, and Nigeria’s decade-plus wait to clear the bar signals real improvement in maritime security compliance.
Mediterranean Shipping Company’s Vessel and Terminal Coordinator, Adesina Omoparuwa, said the restriction had forced MSC into trans-shipment routings rather than direct Nigeria–US calls, the same workaround the line uses for China, and that direct service should now become possible, opening opportunities for US-based businesses to trade directly through Nigerian ports.
Nigeria Watch
The CoE’s removal is the payoff of a process that has run since at least 2019, when the USCG first proposed a phased, bi-annual assessment track with NIMASA to bring Nigerian ports into full ISPS Code compliance. The agency conducted four full assessments of Nigeria’s port facilities and national maritime security framework between March 2024 and April 2026 before signing off.
Marine and Blue Economy Minister Dr Adegboyega Oyetola has called the lift a major milestone, crediting sustained collaboration between the Ministry, NIMASA, port and terminal operators and shipping lines. Washington has echoed that framing: in a letter dated August 26, 2026, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia congratulated Oyetola on the reform, tying it to Nigeria’s anti-terrorism and port-security compliance record.
For Nigeria’s port competitiveness push, running alongside the NPERA Act’s commencement and the deep seaport approvals at Badagry, Olokola, Ibom and Bakassi, the CoE exit removes one of the more persistent reputational drags on the sector: an active US security flag that shipping lines, insurers and freight forwarders had priced into Nigeria-bound trade for over a decade. Whether the savings in inspection time, insurance and freight cost are passed down to Nigerian shippers, or absorbed by the lines quoted here, is the next thing worth watching.
Two More Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Attack Count Hits Five in a Week
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Two more tankers have been hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leaving two seafarers with minor injuries and pushing the number of reported attacks or security incidents against commercial vessels in the waterway to at least five since 16 September.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said an inbound tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile on Monday. Two crew members sustained minor injuries, but the vessel stayed under its own power and continued to its next port, with no environmental impact reported.
Hours later, UKMTO issued a second alert after an outbound LPG tanker reported being struck by debris from unknown projectiles. All crew were reported safe and the vessel also continued its voyage. Authorities are investigating both incidents, and UKMTO has not attributed either attack to a specific actor.
The two strikes build on a Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) advisory covering three earlier attacks between 16 and 18 September, one of which saw a tanker’s hull breached by a projectile, sparking a fire. JMIC continues to rate the threat level in the strait as “severe,” citing a high likelihood of deliberate hostile action and pointing to a pattern of harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — drone overflights, surveillance of merchant vessels and VHF hailing, alongside the direct attacks.
Traffic through the chokepoint remains sharply depressed. Only 17 commodity vessels were visibly transiting over the weekend, down from 37 the week before and against a pre-war daily average of roughly 125. That figure excludes vessels sailing with their AIS transponders switched off, and JMIC notes a persistent gap between visible and actual traffic.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigerian maritime stakeholders, the Hormuz crisis is no longer a distant Gulf story. It is a cost line. Every fresh escalation feeds directly into the war-risk insurance premiums and freight rates that Nigerian importers, refiners and shipping agents ultimately absorb, since global tanker and container capacity pulled off the Hormuz route tightens supply elsewhere and pushes rates up across long-haul trades, including those serving West African ports.
The renewed attacks also sharpen the stakes around Nigeria’s push for a stronger voice at the IMO Council table and its broader blue-economy diplomacy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. A sustained Gulf disruption is exactly the kind of systemic shock that tests whether Nigeria’s seat translates into influence over how global shipping risk, insurance and rerouting decisions are made, rather than Nigeria simply absorbing the downstream cost.
Locally, the episode is a reminder of the layered nature of “maritime security” as a policy word: the Deep Blue Project and Gulf of Guinea security architecture address piracy and armed robbery close to home, but Nigeria’s ports and shippers remain exposed to security failures thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf.
Waterways News will continue tracking how the Hormuz situation feeds into freight cost pressure at Nigerian ports and NIMASA’s public messaging on the issue.
Navy Renews Call for Special Maritime Courts, But Nigeria’s Justice Gap Persists
By Raymond Gold
The Nigerian Navy has again pressed for the creation of dedicated courts to try maritime offences, arguing that Nigeria’s regular judicial process is too slow to match the pace at which security agencies are arresting suspects at sea.
The renewed push came last week in Lagos at the 4th Ehingbeti Blue Economy Hub, on a panel built around strengthening the regulatory and justice frameworks needed to secure Nigeria’s blue economy. The session drew senior officers from the Navy and Marine Police, alongside a retired flag officer and other maritime stakeholders.
Rear Admiral A. A. Mustapha, Flag Officer Commanding the Western Naval Command, represented on the panel by his Chief Staff Officer, Rear Admiral N. C. Ekwom, said Nigeria is working toward an integrated maritime security strategy that would fold the country’s various security agencies into one common operating picture. He pointed to the Navy’s Falcon Eye system and the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability System as the technological backbone of that effort, noting that artificial intelligence is increasingly being layered onto surveillance operations.
Mustapha’s team acknowledged a persistent integration problem: the Navy’s Maritime Command and Control Centre reserves roughly 15 seats for personnel from partner agencies, but most command centres nationwide still operate in isolation. He linked the gap to a wider unfamiliarity with the sector across government, describing it as “maritime blindness”, a failure, in his words, to recognise the maritime domain’s importance to national development.
It was retired Rear Admiral Olanrewaju Beckley, however, who delivered the panel’s sharpest message: that slow prosecutions, not weak detection, may be the Navy’s biggest handicap. Beckley ran through the familiar list of threats I including illegal fishing, illegal bunkering, kidnapping for ransom, illegal refineries, terrorism and smuggling, and said the Navy’s “detect, arrest and prosecute” model breaks down at the final stage. Suspects and their vessels can sit in detention for extended periods awaiting trial, he said, a delay that risks suspects walking free and undermines the deterrent effect of every arrest made at sea.
His prescription was the same one Nigerian naval officers have floated repeatedly over the past decade: dedicated maritime courts that could fast-track case determination and cut down on prolonged detention without trial. Beckley also called for heavier government investment in surveillance assets such as vessels, drones and manned aerial platforms, arguing that the size of Nigeria’s maritime estate demands a security budget to match.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police Okunade Ronke Nurat, represented by CSP Olalekan Faniyi, described the working relationship between the Marine Police and the Navy as cordial, with joint patrols proceeding without friction, though she conceded there was room for deeper collaboration. Other panellists urged that any security-first approach to the blue economy be matched with investment in the coastal and riverine communities that live alongside Nigeria’s waterways.
The session’s recommendations, taken together, called for tighter integration among maritime security agencies, wider surveillance deployment, closer Navy–Marine Police cooperation, more security-asset funding, specialised judicial mechanisms for maritime crimes, and stronger economic support for coastal communities.
Nigeria Watch
Beckley’s plea will sound familiar to anyone who has followed this file. The Navy has asked for special maritime courts under at least three different Chiefs of Naval Staff over the past decade — through a Senate committee proposal in 2016, a direct appeal from the naval leadership in 2021, and now this latest call in 2026 — with no legislation to show for it. NIMASA’s leadership has separately lobbied the judiciary through its annual Admiralty Law Seminar for Judges, seeking faster case turnaround for the same reason Beckley cited: arrests that don’t stick because prosecutions crawl.
What has changed since 2020 is the legal toolkit, not the court structure. The Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act gave prosecutors their first dedicated piracy statute and produced Nigeria’s first SPOMO conviction at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt. But SPOMO cases still route through the same generalist Federal High Court dockets — carrying admiralty, commercial and constitutional matters alongside maritime crime — that Beckley says are the bottleneck. A special court, as envisaged, would need enabling legislation the National Assembly has never passed, whatever the number of naval appeals for it.
For operators represented by cooperatives like WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, the stakes in this debate cut both ways. Faster maritime prosecutions would, in principle, mean faster resolution for the vessels and crews the Navy detains, a genuine grievance among small-scale operators who say their boats and livelihoods can be tied up in custody for months over infractions far short of piracy or oil theft.
But any push to tighten enforcement and expand naval surveillance across the inland and coastal waterways will also be watched closely by the same informal operators, who have long argued that security crackdowns too often catch legitimate local transporters in the same net cast for pirates and illegal bunkerers. Whether the next iteration of this proposal survives the National Assembly, or joins its predecessors as a recommendation without a bill, will say much about how seriously Abuja is treating the justice half of its blue economy ambitions.
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