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Breaking News : Corentyne fishermen attacked at sea ...More details tomorrow (Thursday)

A group of 5 men said to be fishermen attacked over 35 fishermen in the Corentyne River, in the vicinity of Caronie and Nickerie early Wednesday morning sometime between 02:00 hrs and 03:00 hrs. According to Chairman of the Berbice Fishermen’s Co-op Society, Indarpersaud Rampersaud, 6 boats from the Berbice Society and 2 from the Rosignol Fishermen Co-op Society were hijacked on the Suriname side of the river, called β€˜Shell’, during the wee hours of that morning. The men carted off with all of the day’s catch as well as fish- glue. The attackers also escaped with the engine lead from several of the boat engines. The engine lead, Rampersaud said, is essential to send gasoline to the boat engine. After the gruesome attack, some of the attacked men immediately sought assistance from the Guyana coast on the Corentyne. The men had to use their river skills to improvise and construct a make- shift engine lead to operate one of the boats so that they could have travelled out to get assistance.

Suriname police patrol, he said, usually patrol the river during various periods in the evening but it seemed as if the attackers had timed the patrols and launched their brutal attack on the fishermen while the patrol was out of sight. Each boat carried 5 persons, Rampersaud said.

He noted that the Surinamese police do not have much information on the matter but hoped that this would change by late Wednesday. The Guyana police at Springlands, Corriverton Police Station have been informed.

According to the Chairman, some of the men were badly beaten with huge pieces of wood and cutlasses, by the 5 attackers. β€œThey were taken to hospital, [they] were beaten badly; one of them foot even break”, he noted. Rampersaud could not say if the boatmen had cell phones with them, but doubted if these phones might have worked in the corner of the Corentyne River on the Suriname side.

Piracy on the Corentyne River has been rampant over the past couple of months. Several fisher folks have been attacked.

β€œThis thing is terrible but what we can do? The whole industry is going down; this will impact the fisher folks and the business because the workmen are willing but their families are afraid to let their sons and husbands to go out there”, Rampersaud posited.

β€œWe have to think about what we can do to help this problem. We have to sit down and think with the higher authority to see a solution”, he told this publication.

An emergency meeting is planned for Thursday at the #66 Fishport Complex on the Corentyne to address this latest attack.
Chief
Govt can not divert all resources to the high seas to protect fisherman making a paltry sum from fish glue. The govt could grant firearm license to fishermen but that is not even practiced in the US or any part of the world. In fact is known that the same fishermen use their licensed firearms to loan out to their criminal buddies to rob their fellow Guyanese. Police can not be all places at all time. These incidents will continue to occur as long as Suriname provides a safe haven for criminals, Bouterse is complicit in his support for criminals. If only Suriname could go after these pirates with the same ferocity that they went after RK.
FM

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