Tag: maritime piracy

It avoided highly probable attacks on merchant and vulnerable vessels On 22 April, the EU NAVFOR French warship FS GUÉPRATTE was tasked to patrol the East coast of Somalia as part of her counter-piracy duties on Operation ATALANTA.During this patrol her helicopter spotted a boat heading east. The photographs revealed the vessel to be a fishing dhow that had been pirated over a year ago and which was suspected of being used as a mother ship for Pirate Action Groups (PAG).The vessel was carrying a fast attack skiff (used to attack merchant vessels) on her deck and was seen to have Rocket Propelled Grenades and small arms on board. She was suspected of carrying out a number of attacks on merchant vessels and had been used to resupply other pirate vessels in recent months.F/S Guepratte tracked the Dhow from a few miles away and monitored here activity until the next morning. At dawn on 23rd April, the French warship and her helicopter closed with the suspect vessel in attempt to stop her escaping to sea and posing a real threat to merchant vessels in the area. The dhow immediately altered its course and fled westwards back towards Somalia. The frigate ...

To negotitate over their demands Somali pirates, who have hijacked the vessel MV Asphalt Venture with 46 Indians on board, have offered to talk with the Indian government to negotiate over their demands, media reports claimed on Friday.As per reports, the pirates do not want to carry on any dialogue with the company and instead want to speak directly with the Government of India.The Somali pirates are pressing for the release of their accomplices, who are currently in the Indian jails following their arrests during the Indian Navy and Coast Guard operations in the Indian Ocean in the past few months.Earlier on Wednesday, government ruled out any possibility of holding talks with Somali pirates, and decided to "wait and watch" as ship owners continued to negotiate the release of the hostages.The decision was taken at an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), which met for the first time after being set up last month to deal with the problem.The meeting was of the view that the government should not negotiate with the pirates or enter into deals for release of crew on ransom, report said.The IMG, headed by Additional Secretary, Shipping, Vijay Chhibber, and including senior official from Ministries of External Affairs, Home ...

28 April - 5 May 2011 During the reporting period (28 April - 05 May 11) and compared to previous weeks, overall piracy activity slightly increased. In total, one MV was successfully pirated off the Kenyan coast.Additionally, there were two attacks in the Somali Basin East of 65 E, one approach off the coast of Oman, as well as two suspicious incidents in the Arabian Sea and one in the GOA respectively. Although two dhows have been successfully disrupted shortly after having left their anchorage, two dhows, one whaler PAG and the FV Jih Chun Tsai have been located by patrol aircraft underway on probable mother ship operations.Consequently it is now assessed that two dhow PAG are operating in the Arabian Sea one in the area between 17 and 23 degrees N and 57 and 63 degrees E and the second between 10 to 15 N and 65 to 70 E. Jih Chun Tsai, in company with Jelbut 33 remains in the area 5 to 10N and 50 to 55E on changing courses and giving no indication of their operational intentions.Jelbut 32 currently located in the area 0 to 5N and 50 to 55E on an easterly heading, might very ...

28 April 2011 Weekly Maritime Crime and Piracy Summary CARIBBEAN SEA:A RoRo was robbed 2 May 2011 at 0740 UTC while anchored inposition 09:58.6N - 083:01.0W at the Puerto Limon anchorage, Costa Rica. Ten robbersboarded the ship, tied up the crew, kicked them, and stole their personal property. The crewfreed themselves about 20 minutes after the robbers escaped with the stolen items.GULF OF GUINEA:Three crew members were kidnapped off a tug 1 May 2011 at1700 UTC while anchored in a position 20NM offshore from Bonny Island, Nigeria.Robbers used at least one speedboat to board the vessel. The robbers destroyed thecommunications equipment, stole the crew valuables, and seized three Nigerian nationalcrewmembers, to include the Master and First Mate. The other six crew members were leftonboard. (Commercial Sources)Two robbers attempted to board a tanker 29 April at 2255 UTCwhile at anchor in position 06:06N - 002:37E, approximately 22NM south of Porto Novo,Benin. Seven armed robbers approached the tanker in a boat. Two robbers tried to board thetanker from the fenders. After an alarm was raised, the robbers aborted the attack andtraveled toward Lagos, Nigeria. (IMB)INDIAN OCEAN:Cargo ship (ITAL GLAMOUR) was fired upon by one skiff with sixpirates onboard 4 May at 0432 ...

Joint efforts of littoral states around the Somalia Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Wednesday that the piracy in Arab Sea could be reduced by the participation of littoral states to guard the shipping lane in the waters.The statement came after a series of hijackings of international commercial ships, including one from Indonesia, by Somalian pirates when they passed the lane, despite presence of multi-national troops.The minister cited as example the participation of three littoral states, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in successfully securing the Malaka Straits from piracy years ago."Currently, it is likely lacking of joint efforts of littoral states around the Somalia," he said at the Jakarta Convention Center here.Indonesia has released 20 of its citizen from the hostages of Somalian pirates recently and now is struggling to free 13 of its other citizen pirated after the release of the 20."We insisted to free the 13 of our citizens. We will cooperate with the government of Singapore to release them," said Natalegawa.The 13 Indonesian sailors onboard Singaporean ship MT Gemini were held hostage by Somali pirates in Somalian waters during its sailing to Kenya. Source: Xinhua

A boarding party has now confirmed that the pirates have left A Cosco bulker has survived a scrape with Somali pirates almost two years after being involved in a high-profile casualty off Norway.The Full City grounded on the rocks off Langesund, spilling oil in 2009.Armed pirates using two skiffs attacked the 26,800-dwt Full City early this morning in the Southern Arabian Sea, sources say.They managed to board the vessel and there were some suggestions the ship had been hijacked.Indian, Chinese and NATO warships raced to the scene and a boarding party has now confirmed the pirates have left.The Full City was en route from Jeddah to India when the attack took place.The 1995-built bulker made headlines in the summer of 2009 after running aground off Norway.An estimated 300 tonnes of fuel oil was spilled in the accident after it dragged its anchor while sheltering from a storm.The master was sentenced to six months in jail for his role in the saga.Source: Tradewinds

Aims to put security personnel on board every ship passing through somalian waters Indonesia is exploring various possibilities to ensure the security of Indonesian-flagged ships passing through Somalian waters following the recent piracy incident including the possibility of stationing a command ship in the region."A second possibility is putting security personnel on board every ship that will pass through Somalian waters," Military Chief Adm. Agus Suhartono said on Monday.He said these measures were not impossible to do but a thorough study had to be done before implementing them "such as regarding the frequency of Indonesian ships passing through Somalian waters or whether it is effective if we station a command ship with regard to the frequency or whether it is effective for us to station security personnel on every ship to pass there. These are things that we have to study first," he said.Regarding the possibility of Indonesia joining the Combined Task Force One Five One (CTF 151) led by Singapore, Agus said that he had already sent two middle-ranking officers in the CTF 151."The presence of the officers have been proven effective especially for securing Indonesian-flagged ships that pass the Somalian waters. Even they have intensively helped the officers ...

Piracy activity was low During the reporting period (21-28 Apr 2011) overall piracy activity was low. There were two attacks in the Somali Basin, one approach each in the southern Red Sea, and the Somali Basin.As a result of the successful disruption of one pirate mother ship dhow in the Arabian Sea, it is now assessed that there are probably no PAGs currently deployed in that region.However, based on the activities in the south, it is assessed that at least one dhow and another unknown PAG is operational in the southern Somali Basin east of the Seychelles. Gulf of Aden/Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) Pirate activities werelimited to one approach in the southern Red Sea during the last week, although we continue to assess that the IRTC is not pirate free. The judgment that pirate skiffs may blend into the local traffic and commence an attack at any time without any warning remains valid. Arabian Sea/Greater Somali Basin Although reduced to two attacks and one approach, the overall threat assessment for this area remains high. The current assessment is that there may no longer be any dhow PAGs active in the Arabian Sea. This situation could change rapidly, however, and ...

Ongoing processes Indonesia and Singapore are working together to free the MV Gemini, a vessel operated by Singapore-based Glory Ship Management, which was seized by Somalian pirates on Saturday while on its way to Kenya from Malaysia.We are cooperating with the Singaporean government so our sailors will be treated well, given protection and freed soon, Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters as quoted by news portal Detik.com.Marty refused to explain in detail how the two countries are cooperating.There are ongoing processes and it is not a simple matter, he said.Glory Ship Management said in a statement on Sunday that pirates were believed to have seized the Singapore-registered MT Gemini and its more than 28,000 tons of crude palm oil.The ship had 25 crew members on board, including of 13 Indonesians, five Chinese, four South Koreans and three Myanmar citizens.Source: Jakarda Globe

Pirates used two skiffs A Singaporean chemical tanker has survived a holiday brush with pirates off Somalia.Shots were fired at the 33,374-dwt Atlantia on Easter Sunday as a gang looked to take control of the ship, TradeWinds has learned.Pirates used two skiffs to launch the attack which occurred half way between Somali and Madagascar, sources say.The vessel, owned by Glory Shipmanagement of Singapore, did not have armed guards on board but was able to survive the hit.It is not known how many crew members were on board the tanker or whether it was damaged during the incident.Source: Tradewinds