Piracy declines but violent attacks and kidnappings continue
JUST as the final touches were being put on a report that noted comparatively low levels of piracy worldwide, the inevitable happened. Two serious incidents took place off West Africa, right at the end of March and in early April, both involving small tankers.
The bunker tanker Monjasa Reformer went missing for six days after getting boarded by pirates on Mar 25, about 140 nautical miles west of Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo. When help arrived – in the form of the French Navy – it was found that six of her 16-strong crew had been kidnapped. As of time of writing, no further information about the missing men has been issued.
Then on Apr 10, a similar vessel – the Success 9 – was boarded by unidentified persons at about 300 nautical miles off the Abidjan coast, Cote d’Ivoire. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) reported that there were 20 crew of various nationalities onboard the vessel, including a Singapore citizen. On Apr 16, MPA reported that all crew, including the Singaporean, were safe and in good health and that the ship had safely arrived at the Abidjan port.
The kidnapping crew, as opposed to hijacking a vessel or stealing cargo, has become a worrying feature of piracy off West Africa. While crew are usually freed after negotiations, being captured and held hostage is of course very traumatic for the individuals involved and their families.
These latest incidents occurred just as the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded the lowest level of reported global piracy and armed robbery incidents since 1993, in its first-quarter (Q1) piracy and armed robbery report for 2023. But, presciently, the report calls for “continued vigilance and naval response”.
According to IMB, 27 incidents were reported in the first quarter of the year, representing a marked decline from 37 incidents for the same period in 2022. The anti-maritime crime agency noted that of the 27 incidents, perpetrators boarded the victims’ vessels in 24 cases, two vessels reported attempted incidents and one vessel was hijacked. Despite the drop in numbers, the threat of violence remains. It said that six crew (from the Monjasa Reformer) had been kidnapped, two others were known to have been taken hostage, two threatened and one assaulted.
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Despite the latest incidents, the trend still appears to be that piracy and armed robbery is decreasing in the Gulf of Guinea – an area the IMB describes as having become “a relative hotbed for this crime in recent history”. Just five incidents were reported in Q1 2023, compared to eight in 2022 and 16 in 2021.
This gradual improvement must, at least partly, be the result of a new strategy launched last year by the Nigerian government and a coalition of global shipping stakeholders to end piracy, armed robbery and kidnapping in the Gulf of Guinea. The strategy established a mechanism to periodically assess the effectiveness of counter-piracy initiatives and commitments in the Gulf of Guinea. Targeted at all stakeholders operating in the region, it is intended to identify areas of improvement and reinforcement, in order to eliminate piracy.
Despite these improvements, the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, based in Kuala Lumpur, is calling for coastal response agencies and international navies to maintain efforts in the region. IMB director Michael Howlett said: “We emphasise the need for continued, robust and coordinated regional and international naval presence to act as a deterrent to prevent and respond to piracy, especially considering nearly 85 per cent of international trade is transported via the sea and it is the seafarers who need to be safeguarded.”
Worryingly, almost 30 per cent of Q1 2023 incidents occurred in the Singapore Strait, with eight recorded cases – a decrease from the 15 incidents reported in Q1 2022. IMB warned: “While incidents in this region tend to be cases of petty theft, the threat of violence remains a worrisome possibility, with knives sighted and reported in two of the incidents.”
Elsewhere, according to IMB, about 33 per cent of global incidents occurred in South America, with Callao anchorage in Peru remaining an area of particular concern. Five reported incidents occurred there in Q1 2023, a number which has remained steady in recent years. That will be of little comfort to ships’ crews who have to sail into this high-risk area where two crew were taken hostage, one assaulted and another, threatened.
It still defies belief that in the 21st century we are still having to deal an endemic piracy problem, and that attacks on commercial shipping are taking place just few miles from Singapore. But despite the best efforts of countries in this region, notably through the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, completely eliminating the scourge of piracy is proving to be a very difficult task.
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