Tag: Singapore Strait

While overall piracy incidents declined in 2019, there was an alarming increase in crew kidnappings across the Gulf of Guinea. In 2019, IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre received 162 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships worldwide, in comparison to 201 reported incidents in 2018.

Singapore's Information Fusion Centre (IFC) issued a paper focusing on the increasing tensions and attacks taking place in the Singapore Strait concerning the timeframe between November to December 2019, providing recommendations for ships sailing in the area.

The ReCAAP ISC issued another incident alert concerning an incident to a tanker while underway in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the Singapore Strait on Christmas day. This makes a total of 30 incidents in the Singapore Strait in 2019.

ReCAAP ISC issued five incident alerts, focusing on three piracy attacks which took place on December 19 and two on December 23, concerning ships underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait.

Although IMB figures indicated a decrease in the number of incidents for the first nine months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018, piracy in terms of crew kidnappings reached another record high this year, pushing shipping to rethink its approach on maritime security.