In the wake of two subsequent piracy attacks involving crew abductions in the Gulf of Guinea, ECSA and ICS expressed concerns about the rise of armed attacks on merchant ships in the region and underlined these attacks threaten the smooth conduct of international maritime trade.
Pirates boarded the tanker ‘Elka Aristotle’ on 4 November, off Lome, Togo, kidnapping 4 crew members, European Navigation confirmed. Now, the company is trying to free the kidnapped crew, highlighting that the safety of its crew is of paramount importance.
Seven masked-men armed with guns, believed to be members of the Kidnap for Ransom Group (KFRG) in Sulu-based Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), have reportedly abducted three Indonesian crew members from a Malaysian fishing boat, in Malaysian waters.
In collaboration with the Kontinentalist, Stable Seas have released ‘Troubled waters: piracy and maritime security in Southeast Asia’. This is an interactive experience on how piracy and armed robbery affect the safety of waterways.
As MC-Schiffahrt informed, its vessel MarMalaita was attacked by pirates on 14th of August between 23.00h and 24.00h local time on the anchorage of Douala / Cameroon. A group of pirates boarded the ship and abducted 8 of the 12 crewmembers.
The ReCAAP ISC published the Guidance on Abduction of Crew in the Sulu-Celebes Seas and Waters off Eastern Sabah. Between 2016 and 2019, a total of 29 incidents of abduction of crew, consisting of 18 actual incidents and 11 attempted incidents, were reported to ReCAAP ISC.
The Turkish ship owner Kadıoğlu Maritime has managed to establish communication with a group of pirates who kidnapped 10 Turkish seafarers from the general cargo ship ‘Paksoy 1’ off Nigeria, in the night hours of Saturday, 13 July, while sailing from Cameroon to the Ivory Coast.
Following the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement, ten Turkish seafarers onboard the Paksoy 1 freighter were kidnapped by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, on Saturday night, July 13. The ship is now on anchorage at the port Tema, Ghana. The Turkish Foreign Ministry is closely collaborating with authorities in Nigeria and Ghana to safely release the crew.
ICC published a report on piracy and armed robbery in the timeframe from January 1 to June 30, 2019. Based on the report, the seas circling West Africa are the most dangerous for piracy, as of the 75 seafarers taken hostage onboard or kidnapped for ransom worldwide so far this year, 62 were captured in the Gulf of Guinea – off the coasts of Nigeria, Guinea, Togo, Benin and Cameroon.
A total of nine, and not ten, fishermen were eventually kidnapped from two vessels in Malaysian waters, said ReCAAP ISC in an update in its weekly report for 25 June -1 July. This means that all of the crew have been released an no one remains in captivity.
