Illustration politeness IMB

Despite decreasing naval piracy patterns worldwide in 2019, the Gulf of Guinea saw an unmatched surge in the variety of staff kidnappings, the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre stated in its yearly record.

In complete, the IMB got records of 162 events of piracy and also heist versus ships worldwide, below the 201 reported events in 2018. The events consisted of 4 pirated vessels, 11 vessels bombarded, 17 tried assaults, and also 130 vessels boarded, according to the most up to date IMB numbers.

While the general decrease in piracy events is a motivating advancement, vessels continue to be in jeopardy in a number of areas, specifically the Gulf of Guinea, according to the IMB.

The variety of staff abducted in the Gulf of Guinea boosted greater than half from 78 in 2018 to 121 in 2019, standing for 90 percent staff kidnappings internationally in 2019, according to the IMB. In the last quarter alone, 64 staff participants were abducted throughout 6 different events. The area additionally represented 64 complete events, consisting of all 4 vessel hijackings that took place in 2019, along with 10 out of 11 vessels that reported coming under attack.

“We remain concerned that this region has recorded an unprecedented rise in crew kidnaps. These latest statistics confirm the importance of increased information exchange and coordination between vessels, reporting and response agencies in the Gulf of Guinea Region. Without the necessary reporting structures in place, we will be unable to accurately highlight the high-risk areas for seafarers and address the rise of piracy incidents in these persistently vulnerable waters.”– Michael Howlett, Director of the ICC International Maritime Bureau.

The Singapore Straits experienced a comparable surge in heist assaults with 12 reported events in 2019, consisting of 11 in the last quarter of 2019, the IMB stated. The very same area represented simply 3 events in all of 2018. IMB’s most current numbers additionally reveal that vessels were efficiently boarded in 10 events throughout the area in 2015. Despite this surge, nevertheless, IMB thinks about the strength of the assaults in the Singapore Straits to be ‘low level’ and also normally restricted to heist from the vessel.

“This is a distraction and potentially dangerous for the crew in control of the vessel whilst navigating through these congested waters”, proceededHowlett “The IMB PRC is grateful to Singapore law enforcement agencies for responding promptly to some of these incidents.”

In Indonesian ports, heist assaults was up to 25 in 2019, below 36 events the year prior to. Dialogue and also sychronisation in between the Indonesian Marine Police (BRAT) and also the IMB PRC has actually resulted in a reduction in local events, according to the record.

For the very first time considering that 2015, no piracy or heist events were reported aroundBangladesh

As for Somali piracy, 2019 was an additional peaceful year, however dangers continue to be, the IMB advises.

“Across the Indian Ocean, Somalia reported zero piracy incidents, yet the IMB PRC advises that vessels and crews remain cautious when traveling through the region,” the IMB stated. In specific, the record advises that “Somali pirates continue to possess the capacity to carry out attacks in the Somali basin and wider Indian Ocean.”