• A total of eleven incidents have been recorded globally during this reporting period.
• West Africa VRA/HRA: Four incidents have been reported.
• Indian Ocean VRA/HRA: Two incidents have been reported.
• Southeast Asia Region: Four incidents have been reported.
• Americas Region: One incident have been reported.

• Four incidents reported this week.

• The most significant incident in the region this week is an ongoing incident (Alert 932) at Cotonou anchorage area, Benin. We are continuing to investigate the incident and will update accordingly.

• One piracy incident was reported in Nigeria when a passenger boat was attacked whilst underway from Brass to Yenagoa. The driver and two passengers escaped and are reported as safe.

• The other incidents in the region this week were two robberies, both occurring at Takoradi anchorage, Ghana.

• The region finds itself at the latter part of the Harmattan period which still gives favourable conditions for piracy activity before the start of the monsoon season. This is likely to become a factor in their planning.

• Two Incidents were reported this week.
• One incident relates to a boarding by Naval forces in the Gulf of Oman while the other one was a robbery reported in Alang, India.
• April so far has seen a steep fall of incidents when compared to the previous months of 2020. There has only been one incident so far this month, similar to the totals seen in 2019.

• Four incidents have been reported this week. One incident has been included that was received after last week’s report was sent.

• One incident this week relates to a robbery in Manila anchorage, a robbery in Vung Tau anchorage, Vietnam and two in the Singapore Strait.

• Twenty six of the twenty nine alerts this year in the region have been robberies (90%). Tankers have been involved in eleven of the twenty nine incidents (38%). Anchored vessels have been involved in fourteen of the total incidents (48%).

• One reported incident this week. Three incidents have been included that were received after last week’s report was sent.
• Incidents in April have seen armed robberies becoming a common occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico region.
• April has been the busiest month for incidents in this region. A 50% increase on the month of March. This is a similar trend when comparing this to the month of April 2019 which was the busiest month of the year resulting in 23% of the total alerts.

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.

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