We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
The Kenya Coast Guard Service (KCGS) seized two Chinese flagged fishing vessels operating within Kenya’s territorial waters last week.
According to Lieutenant Commander Glen Majanga, the two vessels christened Harong 109 and Harong 108 were intercepted off Malindi within Ungama Bay on May 15, 2019.
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Source: standardmedia.co.ke
Tunde Ajaja
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says the estimated economic cost of piracy to Nigeria and other West African countries between 2015 and 2017 stands at $2.3bn.
It stated that within the period under review, the sub-region lost about $777.1m to piracy on an annual basis, which it said was in addition to human costs as the Gulf of Guinea experienced an escalation of piracy, kidnapping and armed robbery at sea incidents in recent years.
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Source: punchng.com
BY Vincent Obia
When in December last year Dr. Dakuku Peterside appealed to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) to, “Please, report Nigeria appropriately,” he was making a passionate comment on a country determined to change, and challenging the misrepresentation of its situation by a world information system often lost in the ambiguities of perception. The call by the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), made during a visit by the International Maritime Security Operations Team (IMSOT) from the United Kingdom, was against the backdrop of exaggerated reports on incidents on the country’s waterways. IMB, a specialised department of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) dedicated to fighting maritime crime and malpractice, was the main culprit in what looked like a campaign of disinformation against the Nigerian maritime domain.
In often complicated and confusing accounts of maritime incidents, crimes within and outside Nigeria’s territorial waters are lumped together and presented as piracy. And attempts are hardly made to appreciate Nigeria’s efforts to curtail security incidents within its maritime space.
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Source: thisdaylive.com
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Director-General Dr. Dakuku Peterside has said piracy and other maritime crimes have reduced drastically in the Nigerian maritime domain, making it safer for investment.
Contrary to reports in a section of the media on his responses while defending the Agency’s budget before the Senate Committee on Maritime Transport in Abuja, Peterside noted that efforts being put in place by the Federal Government to tackle maritime crimes were now yielding results. He added that NIMASA would continue to up its game to ensure Nigerians benefit from the enormous potential in the sector.
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Source: thenationonlineng.net
It aims to strengthen security through early detection, monitoring, analysis, response to potential cyber attacks
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has a bulwark against cyber attacks with its new Maritime Cybersecurity Operations Centre, launched officially yesterday.
The centre, which has been operating since last November, aims to strengthen Singapore’s maritime security through early detection, monitoring, analysis and response to potential cyber attacks.
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Source: straitstimes.com
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council, Barrister Hassan Bello, says there is no piracy in Nigeria, but what we have are incidences of armed robbery. Bello said the armed robbery incidences and not piracy has been confirmed by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
The Secretary in a statement made available to The Tide queried the rational behind foreign shipping lines slamming ‘war risk surcharges’ on Nigerian bound cargoes,
He said the slamming war risk are deliberate extortion of Nigerian importers and creating a wrong impression about Nigeria’s maritime sector.
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Source: thetidenewsonline.com
Indigenous oil firm, Belemaoil has confirmed the kidnap of five oil workers on its platform in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The gunmen suspected to be sea pirates had accosted their victims working on an oil installation on a high sea before whisking them away in a speedboat to an unknown destination.
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Source: dailypost.ng
By Stephen Kalin, Alexander Cornwell and Dahlia Nehme
RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) – Attacks on Saudi tankers and other vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates this week expose vulnerabilities in the security of a key oil-shipping route amid rising tensions between the United States, Iran and Gulf Arab states.
The operation near the Strait of Hormuz appeared designed to test the resolve of the United States and its Sunni Muslim allies without triggering a war, after Washington tightened sanctions on Iran and beefed up its military presence nearby.
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Source: euronews.com
BySAEED AL-BATATI, QUSAYIR, YEMEN
A global anti-piracy task force deployed in the Arabian Sea to protect shipping lanes has engaged in invasive and violent searches and seizures of small Yemeni fishing vessels with apparent impunity, fishermen told Asia Times.
Multiple fishermen from Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout say international warships, most recently from the Indian navy, have targeted them in deep water and sometimes even in Yemen’s territorial waters. The perceived harassment has spread panic in fishing communities along the Yemeni coast, compelling many to shorten their voyages and others to abandon the profession entirely – some even taking up arms in the war.
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Source: asiatimes.com
The Gulf of Guinea has recorded its third ship hijacking this month, with a chemical tanker captured off Togo, as the region continues to see a spike in maritime insecurity.
According to the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting centre, armed pirates boarded and hijacked an anchored chemical tanker at Lome Anchorage on 12 May, holding its crew hostage.
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Source: defenceweb.co.za
Maritime Security News 