Harboursandport.com: Lagos--- The first six months of 2018 saw a
significant rise in the number of recorded piracy and armed robbery incidents
in the Gulf of Guinea region compared to the same period in 2017 – with Nigeria
topping the list.
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| Picture of a pirate boat |
The second quarterly report from the
ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) shows an increase in global piracy,
with 107 incidents recorded in the first six months of 2018 compared to 87 in
the same period in 2017. Most alarming is the increase in the number of
incidents recorded in the Gulf of Guinea region, which has gone from 16 in the
first half of 2017 to 46 so far in 2018 – with 31 incidents recorded in Nigeran
waters alone. Pirates and robbers were armed with guns in almost half of the
Nigerian incidents and vessels were fired upon in eight of them.
On the positive side – the IMB reports
that the number of crew kidnappings has decreased from 41 by the second quarter
in 2017 to 25 so far in 2018. However, all 25 crew kidnappings reported this
year are from six incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, emphasizing even further the
higher risks in this region.
A positive development is also that
the IMB reports of fewer piracy and armed robbery incidents in piracy hotspots
other than the Gulf of Guinea. No incidents were recorded off the coast of
Somalia in the second quarter of 2018 and while the number of incidents
reported by vessels at berth/anchorage in Indonesia and Bangladesh remains
high, the situation in the Philippines has improved. Abductions of crew from
vessels in the Sulu-Celebes Seas and waters off Eastern Sabah have also
improved, with no such successful incidents recorded in the first half of 2018.
According to the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed
Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), the first six months of 2018 saw the
lowest number of piracy and armed robbery
incidents in Asia at that time of the year for the past ten years.
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