• Four incidents have been recorded globally during this reporting period.
• West Africa VRA/HRA: Four incidents have been reported this week.
• Indian Ocean VRA/HRA: No incidents have been reported this week.
• Southeast Asia Region: No incidents have been reported this week.
• Americas Region: No incidents have been reported this week.

• Four incidents reported this week.

• These incidents saw one suspicious approach take place approximately 110 NM Southwest of Brass, Nigeria. One robbery take place at Conakry anchorage, Guinea. A general alert for possible piracy activity planned in the Gulf of Guinea and a pirate attack on a patrol boat in the Bakassi Creeks, Cameroon.

• The Nigerian government has handed over the fishing vessel, Marine 707 over to Ghanaian authorities for further investigation as it’s believed the vessel was being used as a mother ship for piracy. The Nigerian Navy made the arrests on 18th May 2020 Southwest of Lagos as the vessel was acting suspiciously with its AIS switched off.

• The six crew members kidnapped from a fishing vessel at the start of May were released on 08th June 2020.

• No incidents reported this week.
• The Indian naval ship Airavat has escorted the vessel MV Juist to Mogadishu, Somalia carrying 3000 tonnes of food as part of the UN’s World Food Programme.
• The last incident in the region was a suspicious approach on a tanker on 20th May 2020.
• Robberies and general alerts are the most common incidents in the region. These combined have accounted for 84 percent of the total incidents in the region.

• No incidents reported this week. 

• 92 percent of the incidents in the region so far this year are robberies. This is at similar level when compared with 2019 Last year 87 percent of the incidents in the region were robberies.

• There have been eight robberies and attempted robberies at Indonesian anchorages in the past month.

• There has only been one incident so far in June. This is obviously fall in incidents compared to May which saw fifteen incidents, the most in the region in 2020. However it’s worth noting that June 2019 also saw a large fall in incidents between May and June.

• No incidents reported this week.
• The last incident to take place in the region saw a robbery take place on an anchored tanker at Port au Prince, Haiti. This incident was the fifth robbery to take place in Haiti this year.
• The main threat in the region comes from robberies 90 percent of the incidents this year have been robberies.
• Piracy in the region has fallen by 23 percent when compared with this stage of 2019.

This report is produced in partnership with with Clearwater (CWD).  All findings are predictive and estimative. To communicate these findings clearly and in order to accurately compare threat levels, the report uses a variation of terminology used by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Piracy: CWD/CV have adopted the definition of piracy similar to that given in the BMP5. Content within this document uses the term ‘piracy’ which includes all violent and non-violent acts against vessels, her crew and cargo which have taken place either in internal waterways, territorial waters or deep offshore. CWD/CV classifies piracy incidents into six categories:

Hijacking – Crew lost control of the vessel for a sufficient period of time and then pirates kidnapped at least one crewmember and/or passenger (s)

Pirate Attack – Vessel was attacked with gunfire or RPG fire and/or then boarded the vessel with the intent to hijack and/or kidnap at least one crewmember(s) and/or passenger(s)

Robbery – Vessel is boarded with criminal intent, theft does not have to occur

Suspicious approach/vessels – Suspicious activity reported (i.e. a vessel was approached by unidentified craft with one or more persons on board) or sighting of firearms and boarding equipment on board a suspicious vessel and/or sighting of a confirmed pirate mother ship

General Alert – A reported incident has been released by authorities to notify seafarers of a possible incident which is still being investigated/confirmed. This can also be a warning of an imminent Danger to seafarers

Caution – An unconfirmed warning of an incident that could affect seafarers which CWD Operations Centre has received.

With our head office in the UK, and regional offices in East, West and South Africa, the Castor Vali Group specialises in International Protective Services, Corporate Security and Risk Management services to governments, multinational organisations and the energy sector in emerging and high risk markets. We have extensive experience and a thorough understanding of the risks when operating in remote and hostile environments with safety at the heart of our operations and we are proud to consistently deliver the most complex projects safely, on time and on budget. Our security and advisory experts are highly experienced and qualified to provide a dedicated, client focused service, delivering risk mitigation solutions carefully tailored to project priorities.

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You have received this report as part of your organisation’s subscription. Castor Vali assessment and advice is given on the basis of the information received and processed by us and the surrounding circumstances known to us to exist at the time. Subsequent changes to relevant information or to the surrounding circumstances may affect the reliability of our assessment and advice but we do not accept responsibility for that effect. We do not accept responsibility for the outcome of action taken or not taken as a result of our assessment and advice unless the possibility of that action being taken or not taken is set out in specific terms in our instructions.