Tag: maritime piracy

26 April 2011 update EU Navfor has issued a press release concerning the estimated total number of hostages held and the total number of vessels under pirate control.To view the press release please click hereSource: EU NAVFOR

25 personnel on board On 30 April, the product tanker MV GEMINI was pirated approximately 180 NM East of Malindi, Kenya.The 20,989 tonne, Singaporian flagged and owned vessel was on its way to Mombasa (Kenya) from Kuala Tanjung (Malaysia) when it was attacked.The MV GEMINI has a crew of 25 (4 Korean, 13 Indonesians, 3 Mayanmar, 5 Chinese). There is no further information about the crew at present.The MV GEMINI was registered with MSC(HOA) and was reporting to UKMTO.EUNAVFOR are continuing to monitor the situation.Source: EU NAVFOR

Ship is now sailing to a safe port On the 23rd April, the bulk carrier MV RENUAR was released from pirate control after 133 days in captivity.The Liberian owned, Panamanian flagged vessel and her crew of 24 Filipinos had been pirated on 11th December 2010, 550 nautical miles off the coast of India. She was on route to Fujairah (UAE) from Port Louis (Mauritius), when she was attacked.The ship is now sailing to a safe port.Source: EU NAVFOR

Carrying 24 crew members Somali pirates on Saturday released a Panama-flagged vessel carrying two dozen Filipino crew members, the Filipino government confirmed on Tuesday.The MV Renuar, a Panama-flagged and Liberian-owned bulk cargo vessel, was hijacked on December 11, 2010, about 1,050 nautical miles (1,944 kilometers) east of the Somali coastal village of Eyl, or about 550 nautical miles (1,018 kilometers) from the coast of India.The vessel was en-route to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates from Port Louis in Mauritius when it was taken over by a group of Somali pirates, who have together hijacked hundreds of vessels in recent years."The attack was launched from two attack skiffs, supported by a mother ship, with pirates firing small arms and rocket propelled grenades at the merchant vessel," EU Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) spokesman Per Klingvall said in December. "Since the attack, the pirates have confirmed that they have control of the ship which is now heading West towards the Somali Coast."The crew of 24, all whom are Filipino, had tried to evade the pirate attack for a while, but failed. Eventually, after several attempts, the pirates were able to board the vessel and take over the ship.A statement from the Department of ...

Under pirate control for 199 days The general cargo ship MV ASPHALT VENTURE was released from pirate control on 15th April 2011. She had been under pirate control for 199 days.The Panama flagged vessel, had been pirated on 28 September 2010 approximately 100 nautical miles South-East of DAR ES SALAAM in the Somali Basin, the vessel was on route to Durban when it was attacked.She is on route to a safe port.Source: EU NAVFOR

Close to zero incident level Four Southeast Asian nations jointly patrolling the Malacca Straits have achieved "close to zero incident level" in piracy, but concerns about terrorism and robbery at sea persist, a top military official has said.Malaysian Defence Forces chief Jen Tan Sri Azizan Ariffin said the Straits of Malacca last year achieved a "close to zero incident level" due to the collaboration among the countries which formed the Malacca Straits Patrol (MSP) - Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand."The four countries have been working closely in ensuring the security of the straits," he said, adding that this would be the fifth year since the establishment of the MSP.Azizan said the number of sea robbery cases had seen a dramatic reduction - from 38 in 2004 to only nine in 2006.He added that the 2010 International Maritime Bureau Piracy Report showed that the threats in the straits was now close to the zero incident level.However, he said, the emergence of activities such as terrorism and robbery at sea was a growing concern that needed to be addressed, The Star reported Thursday.He said research showed that 80 percent of oil and gas imports from East Asia and 30 percent of global ...

State of lawlessness The worldwide shipping industry as well as the ITF and unions have roundly condemned the latest development in the Indian Ocean piracy crisis. The incident involves the ordeal of the Indian crew of a merchant ship, who are being held by pirates despite payment of a ransom.The 15 crewmembers of the tanker Asphalt Venture were held following the hijack by Somali pirates on 28 September. After a ransom was paid, the ship was released on 15 April. However, six officers and one rating were forced to accompany the pirates ashore, in spite of dialogue with the owners during which it was agreed that all hostages would be released.It has been suggested that pirates in Harardhere in Somalia decided not to honour the agreement in retaliation for the recent arrest of Somali pirates by the Indian navy.In a statement released on 18 April, shipping industry bodies, the ITF and its affiliates the National Union of Seafarers of India and the Maritime Union of India said: "This is a fundamental change to previous practice and moves the issue from being just between the ship owner and the pirates to being between the pirates and a government. It is a ...

Somali pirates reaped US$ 85 million from ransoms last year Somali pirates reaped an estimated US$ 85 million (Dh312m) from ransoms last year, and ships are increasingly using high-speed transits and armed guards to prevent seizures.Shipping officials say pirates also increased their brutality towards hostages in the past six months in an effort to pressure ship owners to settle faster and for higher amounts.The rising concerns brought together government and industry professionals at a high-profile anti-piracy conference in Dubai this week."Ship owners clearly see maritime piracy as the number one challenge and concern," said Peter Swift, the chairman of the steering group of the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme."We would all like to see it eradicated. We also know it is not going to go away overnight," said Mr Swift, who is also a former head of Intertanko, an association for the oil tanker industry .The scourge of piracy, facilitated by the absence of a functioning central government in Somalia since 1991, has cost the global economy $ 7 billion, said Mohammed Adbulahi Omar Asharq, the foreign minister of the transitional federal government of Somalia. The average ransom is $ 4m, and ransoms of as much as $ 9.5m have ...

Reneging on a deal to free seven of its crew A Sharjah ship owner has warned Somali pirates that reneging on a deal to free seven of its crew will cause others to question the point of paying ransom demands.The pirates captured the MV Asphalt Venture and its 15 crew, all Indians, more than six months ago and anchored the ship off the Somali town of Harardhere.After a ransom payment the pirates say was worth $3.6 million (Dh13.2m), eight of the crew and the ship were released at the weekend, but the pirates retained seven - six officers and one crew member -in retaliation for the capture of 120 pirates by Indian authorities over the past few months.It is thought to be the first time pirates have reneged on a ransom deal since the practice of capturing ships off the coast of Somalia came to international attention six years ago.Sunil Puri, a spokesman for both companies, said the pirates were not "directly in touch with the company".The 4,000-tonne vessel had been en route to South Africa last September when it was seized about 100 nautical miles off the coast of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.Indian forces have had four confrontations ...

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 ...