Piracy & Robbery At Sea Incidents - September 2012
Piracy and Robbery at Sea in September saw a rise in incidents in South East Asia, whilst the monsoon-hit East Africa remained relatively incident free until the latter part of the month. West Africa was low in activity, but one hijack occurred. South America (Caribbean) had a single incident.
As the southwest monsoon approached its end, East Africa saw the first reported attack in 3 months on an Omani dhow. The attack was reported via Omani authorities after the dhow had evaded the hijack southeast of Salalah port. Suspicious activity was reported in the Southern Red Sea and Bab El Mandeb strait. An unusual incident occurred in the Mozambique Channel which saw a mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) approached by 3 skiffs and another ship. The MODU security ships in the vicinity acted to intercept the vessels, which subsequently moved away.
West Africa continues to see cases of short-term hijacking for fuel cargo. A drifting chemical tanker was boarded by armed pirates. The crew shut down/disabled machinery and retreated to the citadel. The Nigerian navy dispatched a helicopter to locate the ship. The Nigerian navy and a foreign warship followed up on the distress alert resulting in the rescue of the vessel and 23 crew. Pirates were not reported to have been captured.
In Asia, 15 incidents took place with the hijack of MT Scorpio the most prominent. The tanker had been hijacked for its fuel cargo. During a routine Coastguard patrol, robbers were noticed descending into a speed boat tied alongside the tanker. The speed boat departed from the tanker and headed towards Karimun Island, Indonesia. There was another ship (MT Sea Jade) tied alongside the tanker suspected to be stealing (bunkering) the fuel cargo. The Coast Guard boarded the tanker, found and freed the 12 crew members who had their hands tied up. The majority of other incidents in the region were cases of robbery; a definite rise in incidents from 9 reported in August.
South America saw one robbery incident in Port Au Prince, Haiti in September.
Read the full report HERE.
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