The ReCAAP ISC issued an incident alert informing of the first actual crew abduction in the Sulu-Celebes Seas for 2018, that took place in the waters off Sabah, East Malaysia, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, involving two fishermen from a trawler.
The incident
On 11 September 2018, at about 0100 hours, two masked armed men, clad in dark clothing and armed with M16 machine guns, boarded a fishing trawler and abducted two Indonesian fishermen off Semporna waters, off Sabah, East Malaysia.
Two other fishermen managed to escaped the abduction by hiding in compartment onboard. Once the perpetrators left, the two crewmen immediately made their way to Semporna to lodged a police report.
There was no shooting and the perpetrators fled with the victims in a boat towards Tawi Tawi province, the Philippines. It was reported that both victims were transported by a speedboat to Talipao, Sulu in the Philippines at about 1400 hours on 11 Sep 18.
This is the first actual abduction incident in 2018 occurred in waters in Sulu-Celebes Seas and off eastern Sabah, East Malaysia. The last actual incident reported to the ReCAAP ISC occurred on board Super Shuttle Tug 1 on 23 March 2017; and the last attempted incident occurred on board Kudos 1 on 16 February 2018.
Recommendations
- As the threat of abduction of crew in the Sulu-Celebes Seas is not eliminated as was demonstrated by this incident, the ReCAAP ISC maintains its advisory issued via the ReCAAP ISC Incident Alert dated 21 November 2016 to all ships to re-route from the area, where possible.
- Otherwise, ship masters and crew are strongly urged to exercise extra vigilance while transiting the Sulu-Celebes Seas and eastern Sabah region, and report immediately to the following Centres below:
The news comes only a day after ReCAAP ISC issued its monthly report for August, reporting no crew abduction in the region. The report reveals a slight increase in attacks against ships in Asia for the January-August 2018 period, compared to the same period last year.
