13-19 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 13 to 19 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.

Suspicious crafts

• 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

• 13.06.2007: 0108 UTC: Posn 03:05N - 054:50E, Somalia.
Three boats approached a tanker on converging courses. As the ship altered her course, the boats adjusted their course and continued to approach the ship. As the ship increased speed, the distance between the boats and ship increased which prevented the boarding.

• 10.06.2007: 0522 LT: Posn 06:00.6S - 106:53.2E, Jakarta, tanker anchorage, Indonesia.
A few fishing boats diverted the attention of the watch keepers while two robbers boarded a tanker at anchor using grappling hooks. The robbers stole two life rafts and escaped. Port authorities informed, however no action taken.

• 07.06.2007: Off Eritrean waters, Eritrea.
Pirates attacked and fired upon an Egyptian fishing vessel underway and forced the vessel to stop. They hijacked the vessel to Eritrean regional waters and held 23 fishermen and sailors as hostages.

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 – Callao

source: ICC

tags : piracy, ICC