Tag: kidnapping

Five crew members were kidnapped from the fishing vessel ATLANTIC PRINCESS, when it was boarded 65nm South of Tema, reports by maritime security intelligence firm Dryad Global reveal. 

Considering the attacks on merchant ships in the Gulf of Guinea by Nigerian pirates, 99 maritime companies, organisations and flag states, have signed the Gulf of Guinea Declaration on Suppression of Piracy, which was launched on May 17.

The 10 Filipino seafarers who were kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea have been released on April 11 and are expected to arrive home on April 19.

There was a decline in piracy globally in the first three months of 2021, with 38 incidents compared to 47 in the same period last year, but violence against crew is on the rise with 40 crew kidnapped compared to 22 last year, according to latest figures from IMB.

The ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) is urging ships and crew transiting the Gulf of Guinea to remain alert and not let their guard down.

The Philippines authorities rescued four crew members, who were kidnapped from a Malaysian-registered fishing trawler by Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) members, while operating off Sabah in January 2020. 

Following the kidnapping of 15 crewmembers onboard the Maltese-flagged tanker MT DAVIDE B, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Philippines said efforts are in progress to secure the safe release of the crew.

A total of 15 crew members were kidnapped from the Maltese-flagged tanker MT DAVIDE B, after the vessel was boarded by 9 armed individuals off Benin, in the Gulf of Guinea. 

British security intelligence firm Dryad Global issued its annual report for 2020, providing an overview of piracy trends worldwide. The report reveals that robberies are the most prevalent incident type in West Africa, but kidnapping incidents remain unacceptably high in Gulf of Guinea. Meanwhile, incidents in Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia remain low. 

It is known that the Gulf of Guinea remains a hotspot for piracy incidents, as the latest IMB Piracy Annual Report revealed. To remind, 35 crew were kidnapped from their vessels in 2020, with the GoG accounting for over than 95% of crew kidnap numbers. Amid this crew kidnapping crisis that shipping industry is dealing with, speakers at the 2021 SAFETY4SEA Talk on security, discussed about key anti-piracy measures and the security challenges for the operators.