Skip to main content

Reduction in maritime crime but hotspots remain

12 Apr 2019

The latest quarterly figures from the International Chamber of Commerce International Maritime Bureau (IMB) show a fall in incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships reported to the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre in the first three months of 2019 compared with the same period in 2018. However, the IMB warns that certain areas, including the Gulf of Guinea, remain a high risk for seafarers.

In the first quarter of 2019, there were 38 reported incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea, 28 fewer than the 66 reported in the first quarter of 2018. These included 27 vessels that were boarded, seven vessels that were fired on and four attempted attacks. Incidents in the Gulf of Guinea accounted for 22 of the reports of piracy and armed robbery, with 21 crew members kidnapped in five separate incidents. The hotspot of Nigeria saw a fall in the number of incidents, partly a result of the increased efforts by the Nigerian Navy to dispatch patrol boats to reported incidents.

There was also a marked fall in the number of incidents reported in Indonesia, with only three incidents against anchored vessels in ports, the fewest reported since 2010. The Indonesian Marine Police has been making regular patrols in high-risk areas.

The IMB comments that this decline in reported attacks worldwide: “Reinforces the importance of transparency, communication and coordination between vessels and coastal authorities … the response can be better organised, improving incident response times ...National governments and coastal authorities can use this data to collaborate and strengthen their piracy prevention efforts.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All attacks and suspicious sightings should be reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, tel: +603 2031 0014 (24 hours), email: imbkl@icc-ccs.org

Post new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.