Maritime Security Updates Archive

28th May 2020
The Cyprus Shipping Chamber (CSC) expressed "growing frustration at the ineffectiveness of the international community" in solving the longstanding problem of piracy and maritime kidnapping in the Gulf of Guinea.

18th May 2020
The first three months of 2020 have seen a 24% increase in pirate attacks and attempted attacks, over the same period in 2019. As a scholar of sea piracy, I worry that the coronavirus pandemic may make piracy even more of a problem in the coming months and years.

22nd April 2020
Pirates have demonstrated their ability to revise their modes of operation in response to maritime industry behavior and the responses of coastal states. When looking the Gulf of Guinea, confirmed as the main world maritime piracy hotspot for almost five years, it’s interesting to consider that evolution.

14th April 2020
Seafarers face continuing threats from pirates and armed robbers on the world’s seas, says the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB), reporting 47 attacks in the first three months of 2020, up from 38 in the same period last year. Pirates boarded 37 ships in the first quarter of 2020.

3rd April 2020
The Malta Merchant Shipping Directorate wishes to bring to the attention of all concerned the new publication for maritime security guidance for ships and seafarers operating off the coast of West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, replacing the previous guidelines for the area.

16th March 2020
There seems a never-ending list of consequences to climate change or the global response to it, but here’s another one to add: piracy.

24th February 2020
The Nigerian Federal Government has embarked on measures to ensure a smooth enforcement of the newly enacted anti-piracy law as part of efforts to stem criminality on Nigerian waters.

5th February 2020
The departing CEO of international ship owning organisation BIMCO has hit out at Nigerian authorities’ complete failure to rein in the horrendous piracy situation in West Africa as well as the tacit complicity of oil majors not to speak out on the matter.

21st January 2020
Time is no longer on the side of the pirates as they expect to be detected quickly after an abduction. What is more, many attacks are being repelled. The obvious answer for the pirates to those two problems is to maximise returns by abducting more people in one go.

15th January 2020
Despite overall piracy incidents declining in 2019, there was an alarming increase in crew kidnappings across the Gulf of Guinea the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) said in its annual piracy report.

27th December 2019
The cost of maritime piracy in West Africa was more than $800m in 2017 accoring to Oceans Beyond Piracy

16th December 2019
Kenya and Djibouti, two states directly affected by piracy, achieved widespread reform of their domestic maritime sectors through new national initiatives and assistance from external partners.

27th November 2019
The Joint Maritime Information and Coordination Centre (JMICC) is working hard to achieve the status of Initial Operational Capability by the end of 2020.

18th November 2019
Demands by the shipping industry for international navies to become more involved in counter-piracy operations won’t lead to lasting solutions. These can only be successful if they are designed based on regional requirements and take on board regional initiatives aimed at tackling a multiplicity of social problems, rather than just one.

21st October 2019
On the morning of 20 October 2019, EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation ATALANTA received a request to assist a vessel belonging to the Somali Navy in distress some 60 km north of Cadale.

18th October 2019
The Nigerian Navy recently intercepted a small craft and arrested its occupants for a criminal offense: providing security services to a merchant ship.

27th September 2019
EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia was launched on 22 June 2015 and it is part of the EU’s comprehensive approach to migration.

17th September 2019
Global maritime security conference to advance international cooperation for a safe, secure and sustainable ocean economy to be held in Nigeria from 7 to 9 October 2019

17th September 2019
The M/T MAXIMUS and the M/T ANUKET AMBER are vessels that have tested the cooperative architecture for maritime security in West and Central Africa.

9th September 2019
South Africa has toughened its stowaway policy and no stowaways will be permitted to be landed in South Africa.

18th August 2019
Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Tanzania have agreed to address rising security threats facing the region, including terrorism, said a communique issued on Sunday.

10th August 2019
A dispute over the “premature” release of convicted pirates by Somaliland authorities may reach the UN Security Council, after a protest by the Seychelles.

10th July 2019
MDAT – GoG reports are primarily based upon information sent by vessels using the Voluntary Reporting Scheme.

1st July 2019
Regional conflict and piracy threats continue to pose potential risks to commercial vessels operating in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, and Indian Ocean

25th June 2019
The International Maritime Organization warns that alerts being issued from the email account of the Regional Maritime Information Sharing Centre (REMISC) in Sana’a, Yemen (infoex@remisc.org) are not legitimate.

12th June 2019
The Swedish Club has released a case study of stowaways in the steering gear trunk of a container vessel that departed from Lagos

7th June 2019
Directorate General of Shipping in India has banned Indian seafarers from working in vessels in Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea, as piracy and kidnapping incidents increase.

27th May 2019
A fresh annual report from the International Maritime Bureau shows that attacks in West Africa helped push piracy numbers up in 2018. In terms of military and law enforcement, an international operation is not complicated, so what is needed above all is the will to act.

19th May 2019
A new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reveals that Nigeria and other countries in the Gulf of Guinea lost US$777.1 million to piracy and other maritime crimes.

14th May 2019
Lloyd’s Register has surveyed damage sustained by two of the four tankers alleged to have been “sabotaged” in waters off Fujairah at the weekend, as Norway upgraded security warnings for its vessels visiting ports in the Middle East region.

7th May 2019
The Boskalis semi-submersible heavy lift vessel Blue Marlin was ransacked by pirates offshore West Africa on 5 May 2019, causing damage that has left the ship inoperable.

6th May 2019
Maritime security and safety are at the core of the Gulf of Guinea Inter-Regional Network’s (GoGIN) Project for sustainability of the Blue Economy.

3rd May 2019
With more than 30 000 kilometres of coastline, the fortunes of the African continent are inextricably bound to safety and security at sea.

26th April 2019
The capture of a Yemeni dhow off the Somalian coast was all that initially went right for a suspected pirate gang. Four days later they and the captured vessel were apprehended by the European Union Naval Force’s (EU NavFor’s) Operation Atalanta after failed attempts to board three vessels.

17th April 2019
The Interregional Maritime Security Institute organised a training course for sea authorities to deal with piracy attacks from 16 to 19 April 2019 in Cote d’Ivoire

15th April 2019
Barely one year after expressing satisfaction with Nigeria’s compliance level with the International Ships and Ports Security (ISPS) Code, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) has placed sanctions on Nigeria for port security lapses.

12th April 2019
As the maritime sector is being targeted by highly motivated cyber criminals, the shipping industry should be on the highest alert for a cyber attack, Itai Sela, CEO of cyber security specialist Naval Dome, said.

8th April 2019
The International Chamber of Commerce International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) report for the first quarter of 2019 reveals fewer incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships than the first three months of 2018.

5th April 2019
Brussels announced that it would end its naval patrols after the Italian government said it would no longer receive migrants rescued at sea.

4th April 2019
Countries in the Horn of Africa have formed a task force to co-ordinate regional interventions in the face of threats to marine resources and security around the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden

29th March 2019
On Friday 29 March 2019 Spain took over from Britain a European Union maritime mission that combats piracy off the coast of Somalia as Britain's planned departure from the bloc nears.

28th March 2019
A Maltese special operations team on Thursday boarded a tanker that had been hijacked by migrants rescued at sea, and returned control to the captain, before escorting it to a Maltese port.

15th March 2019
On 6 November the United Nations (UN) Security Council renewed the authorisation for international naval forces to carry out anti-piracy measures off Somalia's coast. It is now 10 years since the first resolution was passed in 2008 to respond to piracy and robbery against humanitarian and commercial ships in the region.

11th March 2019
New advice issued to merchant ship operators about the boundaries of the High Risk Area in the Indian Ocean where the threat from piracy exists, while emphasising that a serious threat from piracy still exists in the region.

5th February 2019
International maritime crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated as criminal groups exploit jurisdiction and enforcement challenges on the high seas and pose “immediate danger to people’s lives and safety”, the UN anti-drugs and crime chief warned the Security Council on Tuesday.

28th January 2019
In the area of maritime security, which is critical to actualising safe and secure shipping, the NIMASA DG informed participants that the draft suppression of piracy and other maritime offenses bill facilitated by the agency, aimed at criminalising piracy and other maritime offenses have been forwarded to the national assembly.

26th January 2019
Governments from this diverse group of countries have committed themselves to improving maritime security including, but not limited to, the fight against piracy. There’s increasing recognition that capacity-building is necessary.

22nd January 2019
Turning the tide of piracy and attacks is not a difficult operation in terms of military and law enforcement, according to Jakob P. Larsen, BIMCO Head of Maritime Security. The will to act and get both local and international involvement and cooperation on the other hand, may be.

18th January 2019
Terrorists are making over $7 million a year by smuggling charcoal illegally out of Somalia, according to estimates by the Royal Navy.

18th January 2019
Piracy increased on the world’s seas in 2018, with a marked rise in attacks against ships and crews around West Africa, according to a report from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).