South East Asia Indonesia: Armed robbers target vessel at Merak Anchorage 20 May Three robbers armed with knives boarded a bulk carrier anchored at Merak Anchorage at 0225 hrs local time. The assailants threatened a crew member on duty rounds before stealing ship’s spares from the engine room and escaping. Indonesia: Robbers board underway tanker off Pulau Karimun Kecil 20 May Six robbers successfully boarded an underway tanker 2.5 nm east-northeast of Pulau Karimun Kecil at 0101 hrs local time. A duty engineer sighted the robbers and sounded the alarm, ...

Pirate attacks around South American and Caribbean waters are growing, and violence is increasingly used during robberies committed on vessels at anchor, a report showed on Wednesday. The Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) non-profit group recorded 71 incidents in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017, a 163 percent increase over 2016. OBP said the majority of the attacks occurred in territorial waters, with around 59 percent of incidents involving robbery on yachts. Anchorages in Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Colombia and St. Lucia were the regional hot spots during ...

The number of piracy incidents doubled off the coast of East Africa in 2017 compared to 2016, an international maritime body said in its latest report. This indicates that Somali criminal networks are still capable of sophisticated attacks, according to the report by One Earth Future (OEF)’s Oceans Beyond Piracy program. The report calls for new approach to combat maritime threats as the total number of piracy/armed robbery attacks against foreign vessels increased to 54 in 2017 compared to 27 in 2016. “Pirate activity in 2017 clearly demonstrates that pirate ...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA Japan) and the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC), the first regional government-to-government agreement to promote and enhance cooperation against piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia, today jointly launched the Capacity Building Executive Programme 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. Building on the success of the inaugural edition in 2017 which was specially organised for ASEAN maritime regulatory and enforcement agencies on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN, the 2018 edition will for the first time see the participation of senior ...

Naval Dome, the maritime cyber security system provider, has welcomed the Charter of Trust initiative implemented by German technology group Siemens and which has since welcomed a “who’s who” of global technology companies and brands. The Charter looks to address the cyber security challenges that arise from increasingly digitalised, “cloud”-based infrastructure, businesses and industrial environments. The initiative aims to establish a reliable basis “where confidence in a networked, digital world can take root and grow”. Encouraging shipping industry leaders to support the development or to establish a maritime-specific cyber charter ...

Warnings, advisories and piracy incidents in the Indian Ocean Area by the UKMTO in the past week.

East Africa and Indian Ocean Eritrea: Merchant vessel reports attack in southern Red Sea 10 May A merchant vessel reported that it came under attack 28 nm off the Eritrean coast in the southern Red Sea at 2315 hrs local time, although further details of the incident remain unconfirmed. The report coincided with unconfirmed reports that a bulk carrier sustained damage after coming under fire from a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) off Hodeidah. PGI Analysis: The unconfirmed report comes weeks after the Yemeni Houthi militant group claimed an RPG attack in ...

A ship carrying Russian wheat to Yemen was hit by a missile last week near its destination, highlighting the risk of supplying a market that’s embroiled in a conflict. The missile exploded Thursday inside the hold of the Ince Inebolu, which was carrying about 50,000 metric tons of wheat and anchored 70 miles (113 kilometers) off the coast of Yemen, according to Istanbul-based Ince Shipping Group, the vessel owner. The captain reported no casualties and the wheat wasn’t damaged. It’s unclear who fired the missile. Ince Shipping said the ship ...

The Council yesterday adopted a decision allowing for the creation of a crime information cell within EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia. The information cell will be composed of up to 10 staff members from relevant law enforcement authorities of member states and from the EU agencies FRONTEX and EUROPOL in order to improve information sharing between them. The cell will be tasked to facilitate the receipt, collection and transmission of information on human smuggling and trafficking, the implementation of the UN arms embargo on Libya, illegal trafficking, as well as crimes ...

Changes in the cyber security industry A recent set of attacks against critical infrastructure entities, such as oil and gas pipeline operators, utilities and even some city and state governments reveal new motives and methods. The attackers were not out to steel data but were looking to disrupt services. The attackers used a new attack vector that has not been seen before. Instead of attacking their primary targets directly, they attacked less secure vendors that those targets use. We will be looking at how they did this and then how ...

The members of the crew of the Ukrainian fishing vessel YAMK-0041 that Russian border guards detained near Russian-annexed Crimea could be accused of terrorism. This assumption on Radio Krym.Realii was expressed by Deputy Head of State Border Service of Ukraine Oleh Slobodyan. Slobodyan explained that the Russian government is now trying to make the crew criminally responsible for anything from terrorism to arms smuggling. He said the objective is to paint the crew as not simply offenders but saboteurs. The Deputy Head said that even setting aside the illegality of ...

Warnings, advisories and piracy incidents in the Indian Ocean Area by the UKMTO in the past week.

Seafarers held captive as a result of an act of piracy or armed robbery against ships will continue to receive their wages and entitlements during their period of captivity under amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, as amended (MLC, 2006) adopted by the Special Tripartite Committee of the MLC, 2006 at a recent meeting at the ILO in Geneva. The amendments will be submitted for approval at the 28 May-8 June, 2018 International Labour Conference . ‘Tripartism and social dialogue played a key role in the process of adoption ...

South East Asia Indonesia: Robbers board vessel near Tanjung Beraki 29 April An unknown number of robbers boarded an anchored heavy lift vessel between 2300 – 0600 hrs local time, approximately 16 nm northeast of Tanjung Berakit. The crew reported that the robbers had broken into various padlocked parts of the vessel but had not stolen anything. Indonesia: Robbers board cargo ship off Muara Berau 28 April Four robbers armed with knives boarded the Apollo Troth, a Panama-flagged cargo ship anchored near Muara Berau at approximately 2130 hrs local time. ...

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) unveiled plans to buy more weapons, including pistols, machine guns and water assets this year to beef up their fighting capability at sea. PCG spokesman Capt. Armand Balilo said the weapons and water assets will cost the government about 1 billion pesos (around 20 million U.S. dollars). Balilo also said the PCG has recently acquired 70 Travor sub-machine guns 9 mm worth 10 million pesos (around 200 thousand U.S. dollars). He said the weapons were delivered to the PCG on Monday. PCG commandant Rear Adm. ...