We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
ADEN (Reuters) – Yemen’s warring parties started fresh U.N.-sponsored talks in Jordan on Monday, Yemeni officials said, two days after Houthi forces began withdrawing from the ports of Hodeidah, breaking a six month stalemate.
The talks will focus on sharing out revenues from Hodeidah’s three Red Sea ports to help relieve an urgent humanitarian crisis, they said.
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Source: reuters.com
Saeed al-Abyad
The Iran-backed Houthi militias have been trying to lure army forces deployed to the outskirts of the coastal city of Hodeidah into armed confrontation.
Analysts said the militias are plotting to break the UN-brokered Stockholm agreement, which was signed last December.
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Source: aawsat.com
BY DR. IAN RALBY, DR. DAVID SOUD, AND ROHINI RALBY
A floating storage and offloading (FSO) terminal less than five miles off the coast of Yemen has turned into a massive bomb—capable of explosion due to its contents and lack of maintenance. The risk of explosion increases by the day, and if that were to happen, not only would it damage or sink any ships in the vicinity, but it would create an environmental crisis roughly four and a half times the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The consequences of that explosion and corresponding environmental devastation would likely be 1) to rupture the fragile aid-focused ceasefire in Hodeidah established under the December 2018 Stockholm Agreement; and 2) to accelerate the already dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen where roughly fourteen million people are on the brink of famine, surviving at the moment on international aid. There is nothing benign about this situation—even in a region with countless immediate needs, this matter is of the utmost urgency.
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Source: atlanticcouncil.org
Somaliland wants to be included in the Taskforce on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
The Somaliland government says that any initiative to coordinate a response to changing Red Sea environs that does not include them in a meaningful way will lack the credibility, capability and representativeness necessary to contend with competing multinational cooperation efforts in these waters.
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Source: menafn.com
Lucy Fisher, Defence Correspondent
Senior defence sources today dismissed reports that five British special forces commandos were wounded in gun battles while on secret missions in Yemen.
Members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) were shot while fighting in the Saadah area in the north of the country, according to the Mail on Sunday.
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Source: thetimes.co.uk
Members of three key regional maritime security agreements*, which IMO has helped to establish, are undergoing training tackling maritime crime in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (10 – 28 March 2019).
Thirty participants from 24 countries** are learning theoretical and practical skills to deal with piracy/robbery against ships, drug trafficking, marine terrorism, weapons smuggling, human trafficking and more.
The course is organized by IMO and Saudi Arabia under the auspices of the Jeddah Amendment to Djibouti Code of Conduct and conducted by experts from the Saudi Arabia Border Guard, UNODC, INTERPOL and IMO.
The training is taking place at the Mohammed Bin Naif Academy for Maritime Science and Security Studies and is the first of three training workshops to be organized by IMO and the Saudi Border Guard in Jeddah during 2019 – with financial assistance from Saudi Arabia.
The series of workshops will enable participants from different regions to share ideas and best practices in order to promote maritime security.
* The Djibouti Code of Conduct; the West and Central Africa Code of conduct; and the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP)
** Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, the Sudan, Cape Verde, Sri Lanka, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen.
Source: IMO.org
ADEN, Yemen, March 20 (Xinhua) — Yemen’s government accused on Wednesday the Houthi rebels of pushing for a new escalation of armed confrontations in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah despite the cease-fire brokered by the United Nations.
The government’s spokesman, Rajeh Badi, announced during a press conference held in the southern port city of Aden that the Houthi rebels are continuing to dispatch military reinforcements into Hodeidah in an attempt to “spark the situation militarily again.”
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Source: xinhuanet.com
The Iranian Navy has dispatched its 61st flotilla to Bab-el-Mandab Strait to safeguard maritime routes used by Iranian vessels, Commander of the Iranian Navy’s Southern Fleet Rear Admiral Afshin Tashk said on Sunday.
The navy chief added that the fleet, which consists of Sabalan destroyer and a logistic warship named Bandar Abbas, set off on Saturday for the international waters to safeguard maritime routes used by Iranian vessels, especially in the strategic strait of Bab-el-Mandab, which links the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea.
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Source: en.mehrnews.com
ADEN, Yemen, March 13 (Xinhua) — Fighters of the Houthi group launched a missile attack against a pro-government military base in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday evening, causing huge blasts, a security official told Xinhua.
The security source said on anonymity that “a missile fired by the Houthi rebels landed on Abu Musa Ashary army base in Alkhokha district of Hodeidah, killing two soldiers and injuring 18 others at the scene.”
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Source: xinhuanet.com
MANAMA, Bahrain – More than 150 multi-national military leaders representing 33 partner nations were onboard Naval Support Activity Bahrain to attend the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) annual Maritime Security Conference, March 7.
Vice Adm. Jim Malloy, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet/Combined Maritime Forces hosted the partner-nation representatives to discuss the importance of teamwork and alliances in combatting and deterring potential threats in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.
“Collaboration is key to accomplishing our shared goals of maritime security and stability in the region,” said Malloy. “A forum such as this conference allows Navy leaders from across the region and the globe to gather and share perspectives – identify common threats and shared opportunities, and then coordinate activities which will optimize our collective strength and maximize our effectiveness as we operate at sea in the Middle East.”
The objective of this year’s conference was for multi-national leaders to actively communicate about challenges, solutions and ultimately, the way forward in maritime strategy. The members were dispersed into working groups, which assisted in streamlining the discussion topics.
“Collectively we operate in one of the most challenging and complex maritime environments in the world. Ships that operate here face threats in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean,” said Malloy at the beginning of the conference. “The CMF is the vehicle we use to promote legitimate commerce, deter conflict and maintain regional stability.”
Royal Navy Commodore Steve Dainton, deputy commander of the CMF, was also in attendance and echoed the sentiments conveyed by Malloy.
“As a community, we all need to be in this together and building a network of like-minded people will be essential to future success,” said Dainton. “Your individual contributions undoubtedly provide legitimacy to the organization.”
CMF is comprised of three Combined Task Forces (CTFs), CTF 150, which is responsible for maritime security and counter terrorism operations, CTF 151, responsible for counter piracy operations and CTF 152, responsible for maritime security and counter terrorism with the Gulf and building cooperation between Gulf Cooperation Council nations.
CMF is a unique multi-national collective of 33 like-minded nations, dedicated to promoting security and free flow of commerce across 3.2 million square miles of international waters in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf. CMF’s main focus areas are disrupting terrorism, preventing piracy, reducing illegal activities, and promoting a safe maritime environment for all.
U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses about 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean. The expanse is comprised of 20 countries and includes three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab al Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen.
Source: dvidshub.net
Maritime Security News 