Trip to buy store goods turns into nightmare

BETTY Yagu, trembled with fear as she prayed for her and her baby.
She held on to her baby tightly as others begged for mercy from the pirates who had attacked their dinghy near Kalibobo Lighthouse on Saturday.
Her cousin, Betty Ales, 22, said: “I grabbed Betty’s arm when the armed pirates stopped near us. We were both shaking and shivering.”
To Ales, last Saturday was just another trip to buy groceries to stock up her small store in her remote Bang village in Astrolabe Bay LLG in Raicoast.
Instead, it turned out to be a nightmare.
Ales had set up store after she could not secure enrolment in Raicoast High School to do grade 9 because of lack of space.
“I wanted to make and save enough to continue with my education. That’s when I started buying groceries to sell in my village,” she said.
“I am calm now. I am not discouraged by this terrible incident. I will continue to earn and save for my education via open distance learning.”
Recalling more on her encounter with the eight pirates armed with homemade guns, two bush knives and two catapults, Ales said: “When the pirates blocked our path and pointed guns at us, they ordered all the men to jump into the sea.
“The pirates could see that all the women were trembling and shaking and so they told us women to remain where we were.
“The skipper, who hesitated to jump into the sea, was slashed with a bush knife, shot with a catapult and he fell into the sea. We started screaming, crying and clinging to one another. Some of us prayed while others started begging for mercy.
“I am not from the coastal part of Raicoast, I am from the bush and I don’t know how to swim. So, I started crying for fear of having to be thrown into the sea.”
Ales said the pirates were after their goods and cash so they ignored the women and took
all the passengers’ belongings and fled in their own dinghy and sped away.
She said the four women in the dinghy used a paddle and their hands to get near to the seven men in the sea.
Ales said they could not locate two other men who were still missing.
The CID unit in Madang said they received news of the pirate attack at 9pm and went to Garim to search but there was no fuel for them to go after the pirates.
Some K7500 TFF money belonging to Bang Primary School was also taken by the pirates from the school treasurer who was one of the male passengers ordered to jump off the dinghy.