Despite global improvements, kidnappings are on the rise, with 44 crew captured for ransom in 2016, 24 of them in Nigeria, up from 10 in the first half of 2015.
According to piracy watchdog; the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the number of piracy attacks dropped to a 21-year low in the first half of 2016.
The number of piracy incidents worldwide reported to the IMB in the first half of the year was 98, compared to 134 in the same period last year. It was also the lowest number of attacks reported in the first six months of the year since 1995.
Commenting on the statistics, Director of IMB; Capt Pottengal Mukundan said, “This drop in world piracy is encouraging news. Two main factors are recent improvements around Indonesia, and the continued deterrence of Somali pirates off East Africa”.
“In the Gulf of Guinea, rather than oil tankers being hijacked for their cargo, there is an increasing number of incidents of crew being kidnapped for ransom,” said Captain Mukundan.
The Gulf of Guinea accounted for seven of the world’s 10 kidnapping incidents, with armed gangs boarding vessels 30 to 120 NM from shore.
Nigerian attacks are often violent, accounting for eight of the nine vessels fired upon worldwide. IMB says many further assaults go unreported by shipowners.
IMB reported two further kidnap incidents off Sabah, where tugs and barges were targeted. And in early June, a tug and barge was hijacked off Balingian, Sarawak in Malaysia and its palm oil
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