The sound frightened the pirates, who fled.
#Dangerous pirate waters free#
The raiding may have distracted the pirates, however, as the sailor managed to free himself and take off on foot toward the bridge. They then turned to the ship’s stores and began to plunder. The robbers swiped his walkie-talkie, thrust him to the deck and bound him. The pirates noticed the sailor as well, and attacked him as he tried to contact the ship’s bridge on a handheld radio. A sailor on duty spotted the men, who were armed with guns and knives. at Belawan Anchorage, the docked Rudolf Schulte, was boarded by six pirates who climbed aboard using a long bamboo pole topped with a metal hook. Indonesia’s 17,500 islands and their surrounding waters now take the title as the world’s most heavily pirated. Below are the world’s most pirate-infested waters, and an individual attack from each place. National navies have become much more active in the fight against piracy, and commercial tankers and cargo vessels increasingly employ armed security-a concept that was rare and even discouraged in many maritime circles as recently as 2008.Īs greater arms have come to bear against the pirates, the maritime brigands have honed their tactics and beefed up their armament as well.
This is the first time an incident involving the firing of weapons has been reported to the IMB PRC in Ecuador.Įlsewhere in South America, incidents of violent armed theft against ships at anchor have been reported in Callao in Peru, Jose Terminal in Venezuela and Macapa in Brazil.Also changed are the tactics used to combat piracy. The 11 incidents reported in Indonesian waters remains the lowest Q2 figure since 2009 when three incidents were reported.Ī vessel was fired upon in the Guayas River after departing from Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second largest city. Of these, nine crew are reported to have been released.Īround Indonesia, ongoing information-sharing cooperation between the Indonesian Marine Police and the IMB PRC continues to show positive results. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, ten crew were kidnapped from two fishing boats off eastern Sabah in June. While recognizing that many attacks go unreported, IMB recorded 21 incidents around Nigeria so far in 2019, down from 31 in the same period of 2018.ĭespite the recent fall in Gulf of Guinea attacks, IMB is urging seafarers in the region to remain vigilant and report all suspicious activity to regional response centres and the IMB PRC. The organization reported “a welcome and marked decrease” in attacks in the Gulf of Guinea for the second quarter of 2019, commending the Nigerian navy for actively responding to reported incidents by dispatching patrol boats.
“But there are some encouraging signs of improvement,” according to the IMB. These attacks took place on average 65 nautical miles off the coast – meaning they are classified as acts of piracy. Of the nine vessels fired upon worldwide, eight were off the coast of Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer. Two chemical tankers were hijacked, as well as a tug that was then used in another attack. Armed pirates in these high-risk waters kidnapped 27 crewmembers in the first half of 2019, and 25 in the same period in 2018. The report revealed that 73% of all kidnappings at sea, and 92% of hostage-takings, took place in the Gulf of Guinea. Pirates killed one person, took 38 crewmembers hostage, and kidnapped a further 37 for ransom. Overall, 57 vessels were boarded, representing 73% of all attacks. Worldwide, the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre recorded 78 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the first half of 2019, compared with 107 incidents for the same period of 2018. Of the 75 seafarers taken hostage onboard or kidnapped for ransom worldwide so far this year, 62 were captured in the Gulf of Guinea, specifically off the coasts of Nigeria, Guinea, Togo, Benin and Cameroon. The seas around West Africa remain the world’s most dangerous for piracy, the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) latest report reveals.