A total of 156 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were reported to the ICC International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) in the first nine months of 2018 compared to 121 for the same period in 2017.
The global piracy watchdog said 57 of the incidents were reported in the Gulf of Guinea with Nigeria accounting for 41 of them.
Out of 156 incidents, 107 vessels were boarded, there were 32 attempted attacks, 13 vessels were fired upon and four vessels were hijacked—although no vessels were reported as hijacked in the third quarter of 2018.
According to IMB’s PRC, this is first time since 1994 that no vessel hijackings have been reported in two consecutive quarters.
Nevertheless, the number of crew members held hostage increasing in comparison to the same period in 2017—from 80 incidents to 112 by the third quarter of 2018.
“While the record low number of hijackings in the second and third quarters of 2018 is of course to be celebrated, incidents of maritime piracy and armed robbery remain common. ICC urges governments to leverage the timely data available from the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre to concentrate resources in these hotspots,” Pottengal Mukundan, Director of IMB, said.
While most of the incidents in the Gulf of Guinea have been reported in and around Nigeria, IMB said that the Nigerian Navy has actively responded and dispatched patrol boats when incidents have been reported promptly.
There has also been a noticeable increase in the number of vessels boarded at the Takoradi anchorage, in Ghana.
Based on the IMB’s report, 37 of the 39 crew kidnappings for ransom globally have occurred in the Gulf of Guinea region, in seven separate incidents. A total of 29 crew members were kidnapped in four separate incidents off Nigeria—including a 12-crew kidnapping from a bulk carrier off Bonny Island, Nigeria in September 2018.
In other world regions, incidents of piracy and armed robbery are comparatively seldom. No new incidents have been reported off the coast of Somalia in the third quarter of 2018, while two fishermen were reported kidnapped off Semporna, Malaysia in September 2018.
As disclosed, incidents in the remaining regions, including some Latin America countries, border on low-level opportunistic theft.
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