For the month of May 2015 the majority of the incidents occurred in the Malacca Strait where 12 incidents of maritime piracy and/or armed robbery took place involving various types of vessels. In South China Sea 5 incidents occurred with 3 dry cargo vessels and 2 product tankers. In West Africa 3 incidents were reported, the same figure with Indian Ocean. It is worth noting that no incident was reported in the East African area.
On 29 April 2014 two armed pirates attacked the product tanker, SP Brussels approximately 35nm West of Bayelsa Province, unfortunately this attack resulted in the death of the Chief Engineer and injuries to the Third Officer. Two product tankers were hijacked in April 2014 in the Malacca/Singapore Straits. In both the attacks the pirates were heavily armed. Five incidents were reported in April 2014 at Pulau Bitan, Indonesia. Several attacks took place in the Singapore Straits in 2013 and 2014. Finally the EU NAVFOR warship, FGS Brandenburg managed to intercept a dhow in the Gulf of Aden on 26 April 2014.
Incidents off the West African coast are currently slightly higher than in Southeast Asia, a position last held by West Africa in 2008, the year in which a total of 39 crew members were kidnapped for ransom off various vessels mostly in the oil industry in Nigeria. Up until the date this report is being published the areas of maritime piracy related incidents worldwide are as follows:
Incidents off the West African coast are currently slightly higher than in Southeast Asia, a position last held by West Africa in 2008, the year in which a total of 39 crew members were kidnapped for ransom off various vessels mostly in the oil industry in Nigeria. Up until the date this report is being published the areas of maritime piracy related incidents worldwide are as follows:
UN has recently issued a report on the Maritime Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. Piracy in the region has become a growing concern. Much of the piracy that affects West Africa is a product of the disorder that surrounds the regional oil industry.
The shipping industry should adopt a unified international standard to judge and regulate security services provided by private contractors, says leading maritime security company GoAGT.
With incidents of maritime piracy declining and greater awareness of new maritime security threats, the shape and governance of various counter-piracy initiatives and institutions will come into question this year.
Recently there is an increased threat of crew kidnap in the Gulf of Guinea with two new attacks on vessels taking place within a single week having also Nigerian-flagged vessels targeted by pirates and kidnapping six crew members.
While piracy attacks seem to be on the decline off the coast of Somalia, pirates may be warming up in West Africa. As I and others have blogged about before, the Gulf of Guinea, as well the Nigerian Delta, have recently turned into hotbeds of piracy. The Nigerian Delta in particular, because of vast amounts of oil production which takes place there annually, has attracted potential pirates interested in seizing oil and selling it for profit on the black market.
During January 2014 piracy activity increased in West Africa with the Oil Tanker Kerala hijacking taking place as far south as Luanda, Angola. From the four kidnappings that were reported during last month, the three of them took place in Nigeria while one occurred in Equatorial Guinea. On the other hand attacks (mostly robberies) in Southeast Asia were down in January 2014 from December 2013. Up until the date this report is being published the areas of maritime piracy related incidents worldwide are as follows:
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Officer of the Watch 