• One incident has been recorded globally during this reporting period.
• West Africa VRA/HRA: West Africa VRA/HRA: One incident has been reported this week. One incident which occurred last week has been included in this weekly report.
• Indian Ocean VRA/HRA: No incidents have been reported.
• Southeast Asia Region: No incidents have been reported.
• Americas Region: No incidents have been reported.

• One incident was reported

• The incident from last week saw a pirate attack occur on a passenger boat whilst transiting from Bakana to Degema, River State Nigeria. Twelve pirates managed the board the vessel and kidnap two civilians before escaping.

• There have been four pirate attacks in the month of May. This has resulted ten personnel being kidnapped.

• The month May has seen fifteen incidents in the region. An increase of 87.5% on the month of April. Only in March was there a higher number of incidents.

• No incidents have been reported this week.
  
• There has been a total of three incidents in the month of May. This is equivalent to the number of incidents in May 2019. There has however been a noticeable drop in incidents when compared with the first three months on the year.
• Despite the drop in piracy incidents in the past two months there has still been a 189% increase in the amount of incidents when compared with the first five months of 2019.

• No incidents have been reported this week.

• The month of May has seen a total of thirteen incidents in the region. May has had the highest amount of incidents recorded so far in 2020 and represents a 62.5% increase from April. It is worth noting that May 2019 also had a similar number of incidents.

• There has been a total of forty five incidents so far in 2020. This is 61% higher than the total of incidents at this stage of 2019. The marked rise is highlighted by the fact that each month of 2020 there’s been an increase when compared to 2019.

• No reported incidents this week.
• With a total of three incidents May has seen a 50% fall in the number of incidents when compared with April. It has also seen a 50% fall in the number of incidents when compared with May 2019.
• The first five months have seen a total of seventeen incidents. This is a fall of 23% when compared with the total number of incidents at this stage in 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.