30 May-5 June 2007

The following is a summary of the daily reports broadcast by the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre to ships in Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean Regions on the SafetyNET service of Inmarsat-C from 30 May to 5 June 2007.

ALERT

Chittagong anchorage, Bangladesh
Forty seven incidents have been reported since 28.01.2006. Pirates are targeting ships preparing to anchor. Ships are advised to take extra precautions.

The 2006 Annual IMB Report on Piracy and Armed Attacks against Ships is now published. Please see the end of this page to order.

Suspicious crafts

âEUR¢ 18.04.2007: 2320 LT: Entrance Cartagena Colombia.
A container ship, while disembarking her pilot on the port side noticed, on radar, one unlit suspicious boat approaching from the stbd side at high speed. The master alerted the crew. The boat came very close to the vessel (about 10 m from the hull). On seeing the alert crew on ship’s side, the boat retreated and disappeared into the darkness. The master informed the Centre to alert other vessels calling Cartagena, Colombia.

Recently reported incidents

âEUR¢ 01.06.2007: Evening hrs: Enroute Sharjah to Mombasa.
Pirates in three boats boarded a general cargo ship underway and hijacked it. Coalition forces aircraft noticed the vessel with the three boats in tow heading towards the Somali coast. The ship has been anchored off the coast of Hobyo. Further details are awaited.

âEUR¢ 31.05.2007: 2243 UTC: Posn 06:50.2S - 039:37.3E, 22 NM off Dar es Salaam Pilot Station, Tanzania.
Pirates, in two boats with ten persons in each boat attempted to board a container ship, drifting, while waiting for pilot to board. Alert crew raised alarm and the attempt was aborted.

âEUR¢ 30.05.2007: 0400 LT: Posn 01:18.90N - 104:07.70E, Johor Anchorage, Malaysia.
Six robbers armed with knives boarded a container ship and forced their way into the engine room by breaking the padlocks on the doors. They tied up two-duty crew. They stole spare parts and escaped when the alarm was raised.

âEUR¢ 25.05.07: off the coast of Somalia
An Indian dhow was hijacked while underway from Kismayo to Mogadishu. More details are awaited.

âEUR¢ 21.04.2007: 1930 LT: Posn 01:25N - 104:20E, 2.5 NM East of Tanjung Punggai, Malaysia.
10 masked pirates armed with pistols and long knives boarded a tanker underway from a speedboat. They stole cash and ships property and escaped. No injury to crew

Piracy prone areas and warnings

S E Asia and the Indian Sub Continent

Bangladesh : Chittagong anchorage and approaches. The area is listed as very high risk.
Indonesia : Belawan, Tanjong Priok (Jakarta) / generally in other areas.
Malacca straits
Singapore Straits

Africa and Red Sea

Africa : Lagos (Nigeria) / generally other areas in Nigeria, Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania)
Gulf of Aden / Red Sea : Numerous pirate attacks have been reported by ships and yachts in the Gulf of Aden. Some of the vessels were fired upon.
Somalian waters : Eastern and North-eastern coasts are high-risk areas for attacks and hijackings. Ships not making scheduled calls to ports in Somalia should keep as far away as possible from the Somali coast, ideally, more than 200 nautical miles.

South and Central America and the Caribbean waters

Brazil - Santos
Peru âEUR” Callao

source: ICC