Piracy Situation Risk Assessment, March 2014, Issue 23 Highlights of the Past Month:
Last week of February has been dominated by reports of suspicious activity within the Gulf of Oman based on either aggressive or erratic small boat behavior. In general the reported criminal activity against shipping was moderate.
There was at least one confirmed attack against a vessel near Somalia and few suspicious activities. Gulf of Guinea has seen the similar struggle as past months including hostage taking. Incidents on South China Sea have increased comparing to the previous month.
Al-Shabab is continuing to destabilize Somalia. There has been an increase in violence in Mogadishu in recent weeks, including suicide car bombs, night-time mortar raids and daytime clashes between the security forces and al-Shabab.
Egypt has sent a strong message to jihadists trying to endanger the vessel traffic in Suez Canal. Last week Egyptian court sentenced 26 people to death for plotting attacks on ships passing through the Suez Canal last year.
Analysts are pointing out that in Gulf of Guinea region Captains and Chief Engineers become the main targets, both for illegal bunkering and as kidnap victims. However, under-reporting in the region is at an all-time high, with most incident reports coming via third parties or even through local media. Events reported to UKMTO between 22-28 February
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