We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
A Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighting Houthi forces in Yemen has declared a ceasefire, according to officials. Sources told the BBC the ceasefire will come into effect on Thursday in support of UN efforts to end the five-year-old war.
The coalition, backed by Western military powers, has been fighting against Houthi forces aligned to Iran since March 2015. It’s unclear if the Houthi forces will also observe the ceasefire.
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Source: bbc.co.uk
Evidence suggests that Iran has deployed an array of anti-ship missiles and large rockets overlooking Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is vital for the supply of oil from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The waterway is being patrolled by U.S. Navy and its allies to protect vessels from Iranian action.
Multiple amateur videos and photos of the weapons lined up on overlooking the beach began surfacing on social media on April 4. Geospatial analysis has confirmed that the location of one of the batteries is on Qeshm Island.
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Source: forbes.com
Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry said the drugs had an estimated street value in Colombo of about 12,500 million rupees ($65 million), making it the country’s biggest single seizure of drugs.
COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Navy intercepted a vessel carrying a large consignment of narcotics, which is estimated to be worth USD 65 million and arrested nine Pakistani nationals in an operation on Wednesday. According to a statement issued by the Sri Lankan Navy, the seized vessel was carrying USD 65 million worth of crystal methamphetamine and ketamine in the country’s biggest drugs bust.
Acting on a tip-off, authorities raided a flagless vessel in the country’s southern waters and arrested nine Pakistani men suspected of smuggling the drugs.
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Source: zeenews.india.com
Three members of Yemen’s Houthi rebel group were killed Wednesday in a naval operation by the pro-government Yemeni naval forces in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, a Yemeni military official said.
“A unit of the fifth naval zone carried out a successful operation deep in the Houthi-controlled areas in the northern parts of Hodeidah,” the official said on condition of anonymity. He said that the operation resulted in the killing of three Houthi members as well as seizing a boat along with its driver.
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Source: yemenonline.info
By Rinsy Xieng
While pirates are becoming rarer off the Horn of Africa, particularly in Somalia, since warships patrolled the area, the number of acts of piracy and robbery is steadily increasing, with a sharp upsurge in Caribbean. For example, 28 events were recorded in 2019 off the island of Grenada, compared to only 3 the previous year. In the West Indies, it is mainly pleasure boats that are targeted.
Boaters and merchant ships
Pirates no longer hesitate to board large vessels, such as merchant vessels, even though the palm goes back to the Gulf of Guinea, where almost a third of the attacks took place there according to the report of the MICA Center, the center of expertise French Maritime Safety, which has just published its annual report. In 2019, for example, the organization recorded 360 events related to piracy and robbery. This figure has been stable for four years but less than it was 10 years ago.
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Source: rci.fm
By Samuel Baya
Kenya will be handed a heavy responsibility when it officially takes over the chairmanship of a regional anti-piracy body. Kenya was elected to chair the Contact Group on Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia (CGCPS) last year.
The post comes with the onerous task of ensuring that cases of piracy and other maritime insecurity incidents are comprehensively addressed.
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Source: businessdailyafrica.com
Piracy in some of the world’s most critical oil chokepoints is on the rise–but now, pirates are resorting back to another method of income generation better suited to times of lower oil prices: taking human captives.
Sometimes, black market oil prices just aren’t lucrative enough. In the days of $100 oil, oil theft was a hot commodity. Today, pirates are supplementing their stolen oil income with ransomed sailors, creating a whole new set of problems for the oil industry to tackle.
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Source: oilprice.com
Fatehelrahman Yousif
Foreign ministers of Red Sea coastal states are set to kick off meetings in Riyadh next week to promote cooperation and economic integration and to ensure maritime security along this international waterway.
The meeting is expected to tackle issues on the responsibility of Red Sea states to prevent the intervention of any foreign country in the affairs of this sensitive area.
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Source: aawsat.com
Bangladesh Coast Guard on Thursday requested journalists not to use the word ‘piracy’ or ‘pirate’ while referring to robbery incidents on inland and coastal waterways.
The word ‘piracy’ on sea refers to robbery or criminal incidents outside the maritime boundary of the country while the incidents handled by the coast guards occur along the coast of the country and is thus robbery, said a release.
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Source: newagebd.net
The South Korean government is likely to send military forces to join a US-led multinational coalition to defend the Strait of Hormuz early next year.
According to military sources, the 4,400-ton destroyer Wang Geon of the Cheonghae anti-piracy unit is scheduled to leave Busan late this month to relieve the destroyer Kang Gam-chan which is currently operating in the Gulf of Aden.
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Source: koreaherald.com
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