Skip to main content

Maritime kidnappings at 10-year high.

The number of maritime kidnappings hit a ten-year high in 2016, with waters off the southern Philippines becoming increasingly dangerous, the International Maritime Bureau said Tuesday. 

While the overall number of pirate attacks has declined in recent years, the IMB said 62 people worldwide were kidnapped for ransom at sea last year compared to only 19 in 2015 and nine in 2014.

The kidnapping of crew from ocean-going merchant vessels in the Sulu Sea and their transfer to the southern Philippines represents a notable escalation in attacks,” the IMB said in a report. It urged shipowners to avoid the Sulu Sea, which lies between eastern Malaysia and the Philippines, by routing ships to the west of Borneo island. In a string of incidents in the Sea last year, groups of armed men — said to be either from or linked to the Abu Sayyaf — ambushed ships and seized crew for ransom. The Abu Sayyaf are based on remote and mountainous southern Philippine islands.


 Their leaders pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group, but analysts say they are more focused on lucrative kidnappings. Noel Choong, head of the IMB’s Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre, said groups linked to militants were carrying out the kidnappings — particularly off West Africa and in the Sulu Sea. Despite the rise in kidnappings, the number of overall pirate attacks continued to fall due to better policing and ships taking more precautions. 

A total of 191 cases of piracy on the high seas were recorded in 2016 compared to 246 in 2015. World piracy has been on the decline since 2012 after international naval patrols were launched off East Africa in response to a spate of violent assaults by Somali-based pirates and others. The number of cases has also plummeted off Indonesia thanks to more efficient patrols. “The continued fall in piracy is good news but certain shipping routes remain dangerous, and the escalation of crew kidnapping is a worrying trend in some emerging areas,” said Pottengal Mukundan, director of IMB.


 In addition to the Sulu Sea, the Gulf of Guinea was a kidnap hotspot, with 34 crew taken in nine incidents last year. The number of all pirate attacks off Nigeria rose from 14 in 2015 to 36 last year. Peru, which had a clean sheet in 2015, saw 11 pirate incidents last year -– 10 of them at its main port of Callao.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BANDIT GUNRUNNER ARRESTED

  Police in Zaria city arrested Bilyaminu Saidu 33years, a gun runner, bandit & logistics supplier. He was arrested with 4 AK-47 rifles, 344 rounds of live ammunition & one motorcycle. Bilyaminu is an indigene of Shuwaki village in Bakori LGA of Katsina state.

Man batters gay man on livestream for saying they slept together

                                                   A well-respected man beat up an openly gay man on livestream after the gay man went public to say they had sex. James, a man known in his neighborhood as gay, told the entire hood that he had sexual relations with a man named Peter. Peter is a well-respected man in the neighborhood and is believed to be straight. After James claimed they were intimate, Peter attacked him as he slept and beat him until he was bleeding. In spite of the beating, James has stuck to his story that they had sex. "I sucked his D," James insists and people are beginning to believe him as can be seen in the video. James The video of Peter beating James can be seen here .

3 people die, 8 injured during a birthday party clash in Bauchi State

                        The Bauchi State police command have confirmed that three persons were killed and eight others injured in a clash that erupted at a birthday party on Sunday night in Lushi Ward in Bauchi. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Kamal Abubakar, confirmed the incident saying that 75 suspects had been arrested in connection with the clash. He said that two houses were burnt during the incident and that the situation has been brought under control. He also said that investigation was going on to get to the root of the crisis. According to Abubakar, the crisis started following a misunderstanding among some youths at a birthday party in Kusu area of Sakani which later spread to other parts of Yelwa Ward. An eye witness said that the incident might have started when two young men fought over a young lady a...