The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre, jointly launched the Capacity Building Executive Programme 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. The Programme aims to improve skills of maritime regulatory & enforcement authorities in fight against piracy and sea robbery in Asia.
ISWAN and the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium signed a Memorandum of Understanding, under which Taiwan will donate another USD 30,000 to the Piracy Survivor Family Fund, administered by ISWAN, on behalf of the UN Contact Group for Piracy off the Coast of Somalia.
In its latest weekly report, the ReCAAP ISC informed of two recent incidents of armed robbery against ships in Asia. Both attacks were reported at Samarinda Anchorage, Muara Berau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. ReCAAP ISC has earlier in the month informed of similar incidents against ships in this location.
Turkish shipping company Ince Shipping Group confirmed that the explosion onboard the bulk carrier ‘Ince Inebolu’ off the port of Saleef, Yemen, last week, was caused by a missile attack. The ship was anchored 70 miles off Saleef, just north of the port of Hodeidah on the Red Sea, and awaiting permission to offload cargo in the port.
Charlie Stickland, the Operational Commander Major General of EU NAVFOR, met with Mr. Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the IMO, on 11 May at IMO Headquarters in London. At the meeting, general Stickland updated the IMO Secretary-General on EU NAVFOR’s counter-piracy Operation Atalanta.
The Turkish bulk carrier ‘Ince Inebolu’ sustained an explosion, while anchored about 70 nm off the port of Hodeidah, Yemen, according to an official confirmation by Saudi coalition forces. The cause of the incident appears to be uncertain at the moment. The explosion seemed to have originated from the hull, as forces conducted a survey onboard and found an explosion from the inside to the outside
UN-trained law enforcement units have intercepted huge shipments of illegal drugs being trafficked through seaports this year, under the Container Control Programme, jointly launched in 2003 by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Customs Organization.
The USCG offloaded approximately 6 tons of cocaine in Port Everglades, worth an estimated $180 million, that it was seized in international waters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The seizure represents six separate vessel interdictions off Central and South America and Mexico between late February and mid-April.
Guatemalan and US Coast Guard officials collaborated to achieve the largest cocaine seizure in Guatemala’s history. The drugs were hidden in false-bottomed parts of a Tanzania-flagged ship. The cargo carrier was intercepted off Guatemala and was taken to Puerto Quetzal. The authorities detected the drugs after conducting an investigation.
Nigerian migrants who survived a deadly sea crossing last year filed a lawsuit against Italy for violating their rights by supporting Libya’s efforts to return them to North Africa. The seventeen plaintiffs said Italy violated multiple articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.
