15 April 2011
During the reporting period (08 – 15 April 2011) overall piracy activities was low again. Several pirate activities were disrupted by naval assets.
Despite the success, one general cargo vessel was pirated in the Arabian Sea as well as another attack and one suspicious activity.Although three pirate mothership dhows were disrupted, it is assessed that few Pirate Attack Groups (PAG) continue activity in the Arabian Sea, the IRTC and possibly in the southern Somali Basin.
Gulf of Aden/Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC)
During the last week there has been one attack. Based on the limited to none piracy activities, it is extremely dangerous to consider the IRTC as pirate free and the previous assessment that pirate skiffs blend into the local traffic and might attack at any time without any warning is still valid.
Arabian Sea/Greater Somali Basin
Although reduced to one act of piracy and one suspicious activity the overall threat assessment for this area remains to be high. The current assessment is that there is at least one active dhow PAG in the Arabian Sea. In addition, the fishing vessel JIH CHUN TSAI 68 is still missing and assessed to be active in this area and might even spread their activities into the eastern part of the GoA.
Although a low level of activity and recent disruptions of counter piracy forces in the southern Somali Basin, at least one whaler PAG is still assessed to be active, possibly along the Kenyan/ Tanzanian coast towards the Mozambique Channel. This is a minimum figure and there remains the possibility that other PAG have got underway from Pirate anchorages and are now also in the area.
A significant number of pirated regional dhows, particularly Iranian flagged Jelbut-type and Yemeni flagged Yemeni-type vessels remain in pirate possession and continue to pose a potential threat when taken out unnoticed on mothership operations, predominantly in the Arabian Sea.
Source: NATO Shipping Center
