Piracy Situation Risk Assessment, October 2014, Issue 30 Highlights of the Past Month:
Last month has seen similar level of piracy related incidents around Indian Ocean region as the month before, totaling at least 7 cases those were released to public. In the Western African region the attacks or suspicious events have declined and only 1 attack with kidnap has been reported by some sources (dismissed by IMB to date). South China Sea region counted at least 7 serious incidents, including an incident of another oil cargo theft near Malaysia and Pulau Bintan (Indonesia) and also an incident of stealing of a vessel bunkers in Malacca Strait near Thailand.
On night of 6 Sept a group of heavily armed militants attacked a naval dock in Karachi's sea port and targeted what they believed was an American aircraft carrier, but instead found a Pakistan Navy frigate and were overwhelmed before they could cause any damage.
On 30 Aug 2014, off Baraawe, Somali Coast MV Andrea was attacked by mortars fired from the shore while sailing from Mogadishu to Kismayu. Andrea was sailing less than 3 nm from the shore when the incident occurred. 10 mortar rounds were fired at the ship in a period of 20 mins. Two rounds landed five meters from the ship.
On 18 Sept the quarterly Maritime Information Exchange Vessel Operators’ Meeting was held in Abu Dhabi. The participants (UKMTO, OiC, CTF 151, UKMCC, NAVCENT, Newport Africa Ltd., Olive Group, OCIMF) made the following main conclusions: Short Term Assessment: the threat remains unchanged, pirate tactics remain unchanged, elements of deception/concealment remain unchanged, and conditions post the SW monsoon will be more favorable for pirate activity. Long Term Assessment: it is likely that piracy event totals will remain low but will not stop completely. Piracy Future Trends – it is assessed that piracy will remain at or below the 2013 levels. Possible new trends may include attacks within anchorages / at night or possibly from new staging areas further south.
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