An Iranian fishing dhow used by pirates as a mothership

By JD, Somalia Report

The Iranian Navy rescued an oil tanker from an attempted pirate hijacking in the Gulf of Aden on Monday, according to Somali pirates based in Harardhere. These sources added that the pirates involved were from Garacad and Ceel-dhanaane area of Mudug region.

A pirate based in Harardhere area told Somalia Report, “Three groups of pirates were in the Gulf of Aden to attack international vessels. A group from the Garacad area informed their friends that they had attacked an Iranian Oil tanker, but it had been rescued by a warship,” he said.

The pirate source added the pirates were using a mother ship and number of speed boats, “They were a group of pirates using a mother ship and speed boats. When they saw the vessels, they used the speed boats to attack and when the attack failed they returned to their mother ship. We don’t know how many of these pirates are injured, but they are now heading back towards Garacad,” said the pirate.

Another pirate source told Somalia Report that this group of pirates were using the Iranian fishing dhow Al Khaliil, which pirates hijacked last week, but Somalia Report was unable to confirm this.

The Iranian navy, which currently has a warship based in the Red Sea near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told media that the Iranian Navy had rescued an Iranian oil tanker from pirates. Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Seyed Mahmoud Moussavi said 35 pirates were involved in the thwarted assault. The officials added that the crew of the Iranian oil tanker are in good health and remain unharmed.

Iranian Navy has recently become involved in anti-piracy operations along the Somali coast.

Republished with permission, (c) 2012 SomaliaReport.com

“The risks off Nigeria are increasing because of an increase in militancy in the Delta region,” said Rory Lamrock, a maritime analyst at AKE Group, a risk consultancy.

The company does not have a risk assessment scale for the maritime industry, but Lamrock added that if it did “we would definitely be pushing it up.”

According to the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization, five attacks have been reported off the coast of West Africa in the first three weeks of this year alone.

Last year, the IMO reported a 28% increase in attacks in the region compared to a year earlier, with 64 attacks reported in 2011, up from 46 in 2010. However, the International Maritime Bureau–a nonprofit organization set up to counter maritime crime–warns that reported numbers aren’t representative of the real severity of piracy in the region.

“There are a couple of areas we are watching very closely,” said Erik Rabjerg Nielsen, the head of daily operations at the container freight division of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s largest shipping company.

“In West Africa we’re seeing armed robbery more and it has escalated recently,” he added.

Increased risk would also mean increased costs. Shippers already take elaborate measures to protect their vessels against pirate attack, including hardening the ship to prevent illegal boarding (water hoses, barbed wire) and installing panic rooms.

Maersk estimated that its anti-piracy costs rose to $200 million in 2011, double what it spent in 2010, and “if West Africa gets worse we would need to spend more on our anti-piracy costs,” Nielsen added.

“These attacks (In West Africa) are generally for theft rather than for kidnap and ransom, and include the theft of oil. Some have been politically motivated (connection to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), where the level of violence is higher than off Somalia’s coast,” a spokesman for the IMO said.

An additional concern is that Nigeria, which seems to be the hub of pirate activity in the region, is a major supplier of both crude oil and cocoa to the U.S. and Europe.

The country is Africa’s largest oil exporter and was the fifth biggest source of crude imports to the U.S. in the first 10 months of 2011, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Threats earlier this month that the country could shut down its oil production due to a dispute over oil subsidies helped send the price of oil futures to their highest since August.

Threats of piracy to Nigeria–West Africa’s fourth largest cocoa producer–come at a time when supply concerns already weigh on the market with the region’s crops under pressure due to hot and dry weather.

The rich pickings to be gained from mining these resources could well incentivize the pirates to grow bolder this year, industry sources say, adding that unlike off the coast of Somalia, where pirates often take hostages and hold them to ransom, pirates in the Gulf of Guinea seem to target their attacks more on high value cargoes such as oil and its products.

“The method of attack is different from Somalia in that the pirates don’t hold vessels or crew for a long period, but extract the cargo using smaller vessels,” said Neil Roberts, senior executive in underwriting at the Lloyds Market Association.

“It is theft and at the moment they seem to be targeting oil,” he added.

The LMA is an industry association which represents the interests of all underwriting businesses in the Lloyds market.

However, crude oil traders who routinely charter tankers to export crude from the region shrugged off the risks from piracy. “The crude terminals are well protected…my guess is it’s the in-shore products vessels that are susceptible,” said one trader.

Still, risk analysts see a growing danger, as pirates operating in the region seem to be increasing their capability to attack vessels further out to sea.

“There is evidence to suggest quite lot of local fishing vessels are being hijacked which means that attacks can happen further out,” said AKE Group’s Lamrock said.

“One would struggle to see them getting beyond 200 miles but we thought that with Somalia too,” the LMA’s Roberts added.

-By Neena Rai, Dow Jones Newswires

RFA Fort Victoria hands over 14 suspected pirates to the Seychelles for prosecution, image courtesy Royal Navy

A group of pirates caught by a Royal Navy operation in the Indian Ocean will face justice in the Seychelles.

RFA Fort Victoria – part of NATO’s counter piracy task force Operation Ocean Shield – has handed over 14 suspects to the islands’ authorities for prosecution.

The fourteen Somalis were captured on January 13 by Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel embarked on RFA Fort Victoria.

The suspected pirates, who were known to have been operating in the Indian Ocean, were intercepted on board a hijacked Yemeni fishing dhow.

They were found to have a variety of pirate paraphernalia and weapons on board, including rocket-propelled grenades and hand-grenades.

This is the culmination of four months of operations for the UK Counter-Piracy Task Group based on Fort Victoria and under the command of Captain Gerry Northwood.

“This has been a long four months of intensive counter-piracy operations during which time we have captured more than 30 pirates for prosecution and rescued 44 merchant mariners from the hands of the pirates.

“This success has been echoed by other NATO units engaged in counter-piracy operations and the handover of these 14 suspected pirates to the Seychelles authorities will contribute to ensuring the waters of the Indian Ocean become a safer place for all mariners.”

The "RHIB" with the suspected pirates is lowered on the RFA Fort Victoria. These suspected pirates face prosecution in the Seychelles for piracy. Image courtesy Royal Navy

Foreign Secretary William Hague said:

“We are very grateful to the Seychelles for their agreement to prosecute these suspected pirates. Their commitment to the fight against piracy has helped avoid a situation where these individuals were not held to account for their actions.

“In a few weeks time the London Conference on Somalia will discuss how the international community can tackle the many problems faced by Somalia, including piracy.

“Today’s agreement on the transfer of alleged pirates demonstrates what can be achieved through international co-operation and commitment.”

Danish ship HDMS Absalon, another NATO ship conducting counter piracy operations in the Indian ocean was also in the Seychelles, handing over four suspected pirates to the Seychelles authorities.

Over the last four years, piracy off the coast of Somalia has become an international phenomenon, plaguing shipping in the Indian Ocean and resisting attempts by the international community to contain it. Despite a high level international response that has included nine UN Security Council resolutions and three different multi-national naval operations, the numbers of vessels affected each year keeps growing: in 2007, there were 55 attempted and successful attacks by Somali pirates. By 2010, that had almost quadrupled to 219. Over the same period, over 3,500 seafarers have been held hostage, and 62 have been killed.

In January 2011, Jack Lang, a former French Foreign Minister who now advises the UN on piracy, warned that Somali pirates were becoming the “masters” of the Indian Ocean.  The first three months of 2011 saw piracy attacks worldwide hit an all time high, largely driven by piracy off the coast of Somalia. From January to March 2011, the International Chamber of Shipping recorded 97 by Somali pirates, averaging more than one a day. Fifteen ships were successfully hijacked and 299 crewmen taken hostage. The rise in attacks coincided with an increase in violence, with seven seafarers killed and 34 injured worldwide.  We note that some observers have attributed the recent rise in piracy off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea to copycat attacks, and that this is also a concern. However, while lessons should be learned from the experience with Somali piracy, such as the importance of swift intervention, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has on the whole followed a different model to that of Somali piracy.

Bringing Pirates to Justice

Around nine out of 10 piracy suspects detained by forces engaged in multinational operations are released without trial.  The fact that most pirates are simply returned to their boats or to Somali land has engendered strong criticism from the shipping industry. According to the Chamber of Shipping, “the repeated images of pirates being released without trial by naval forces, including by the Royal Navy, causes understandable derision”.  However, Henry Bellingham warned that these release statistics can be misleading, and that most of those released were not actually captured during an attack:

It is also worth bearing in mind that most of the so-called catch and releases have been the result of disruption activities with naval vessels going in quite a lot closer to the shore and intercepting skiffs. Of the cases of actual attacks on vessels and attempted acts of piracy that resulted in capture by the Navy, very few have resulted in catch and release, because if an attack has been made on a vessel, you have the evidence.

The Foreign Secretary also argued that disrupting pirates without detaining them still has merit:

Though unsatisfactory as an outcome, the pirates are at least temporarily disrupted as any equipment which could be used in a piracy attack, such as expensive engines, ladders or weapons, is seized and, most likely, destroyed.

The perceived failure to prosecute piracy suspects has been the subject of considerable criticism from some in the industry, who believe that prosecutions would constitute an important deterrent to the pirates. This criticism was voiced by the Baltic Exchange, which accused the UK of holding a particularly poor record:

The UK has gained a degree of notoriety within the international shipping community for its failure to prosecute those caught red-handed in the act of piracy. Once captured, pirates caught by UK forces are widely perceived simply to receive sustenance and medical assistance before being returned to the mainland unmolested. Seventeen countries (including France, Germany, Spain and the United States) placed more than 850 pirates on trial in the 12 months prior to April 2011″.

The Government has recently confirmed that in the past two years 21 pirates have been transferred to other states by the Royal Navy for prosecution, and between April 2010 and 11 November 2011, 60 further suspected pirates were released after being encountered during boarding operations because “it was assessed that a successful prosecution was unlikely”.  Since making this statement, a further seven suspected pirates have been detained by Royal Navy forces and transferred to the Seychelles for prosecution.

In response to this criticism, the Minister argued that prosecutions are indeed taking place, stating that “I can understand the frustration of catch and release occurring, but it is worth saying that more than 1,000 pirates are now in custody around the world, so there is no impunity”.

Practical Difficulties

Captain Reindorp described the considerable practical challenges of detaining and transferring suspects who are captured in the Indian Ocean:

You could be doing this 1,800 miles out into the Indian Ocean; it would take you five or six days to get a pirate back if you had to steam him back, and you may not want to send your one and only helicopter off to do that, because that might be better used looking out for and trying to deter and interdict pirate operations. This is not simply an issue of jurisdiction; it is also an issue of practice, which comes from the unique maritime environment in which it is happening.

He expanded on the choice between allocating resources to pursuing prosecutions, rather than conducting deterrent operations:

whilst all this is going on, a ship is not performing its primary role which is deterring pirates, so you have to decide whether you are going to chase an ever-decreasing possibility of a successful prosecution or go back and deter pirates.

Evidence

We heard repeatedly that a major obstacle to achieving more prosecutions was the difficulty in gathering sufficient evidence of the act of piracy.

Dr McCafferty stated that:

with a burglar in your house, you have evidence of burglary. The challenge in the Indian Ocean, as we’ve said, is catching the pirates in the act with the evidence. Where we have been able to put evidence together, the UK has been successful in prosecuting pirates, albeit a small number. The challenge is always finding enough evidence that will convince the local authorities or countries in the region to try to prosecute.  

As Dr McCafferty noted, the pirates are able to dispose of evidence quickly and permanently: “when they see a naval vessel approaching, they will often throw the paraphernalia overboard, and then we do not have the evidence which with to chase a prosecution”.

In addition to concrete evidence, witness testimony from those hijacked or under attack is important. The Minister told us that “The captain of a vessel has to be prepared to give evidence and you have to have crew members”.  However, this evidence is not always easy to secure: Captain Reindorp stated that even in cases in which the UK had captured pirates and liberated hostages, the released hostages were unwilling to testify or to travel to courts in the region. He also noted that:

“There have been occasions when we take a boat and the first thing that the pirates do is pretend that they are hostages. Actually, it is really quite difficult to differentiate between the two”.

It is even more difficult to obtain evidence that suspects intend to commit acts of piracy. Distinguishing between pirates and ordinary Somali fishermen is not as easy as is sometimes supposed. Captain Reindorp described the problem:

We have to be able to differentiate four Somali gentlemen in a small boat with AK47s, which they will usually say that they carry for self-protection from pirates, from pirates, who may well also look like four Somali gentlemen in the same boat, with exactly the same weapons.

Even if suitable evidence is found, a number of states in the region do not have laws against going equipped or with intent to commit piracy, but only against an act of piracy itself. The Minister told us that four states in the region had a law against going equipped or going with intent, and that “what we want is for countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Mauritius to change their laws as well”.

We conclude that gathering evidence to secure a successful prosecution for piracy is challenging. However, not all claims made by the Government about the difficulty in securing evidence were wholly convincing: when pirates are observed in boats with guns, ladders and even hostages, it beggars belief that they cannot be prosecuted, assuming that states have the necessary laws in place and the will to do so. We urge the Government to pursue alternative means of securing suitable evidence (such as photos or video recordings of pirates with equipment, and supplying witness testimony by videolink). We urge the Government to engage with regional states to agree consistent and attainable rules on evidence required for a piracy prosecution.

For the entire report, including references, please click here.

FV Shiuh Fu No 1, image courtesy EUNAVFOR

- By JD, Somalia Report

The Indian dhow. Photo: EUNAVFOR

A rather dramatic scene unfolded over the past three days in the Indian Ocean involving a EUNAVFOR warship, a group of pirates, 15 hostages, and an attack on a Dutch-registered vessel.

The incident began on January 17 when a group of pirates holding 15 Indian hostages aboard a hijacked dhow launched skiffs that attacked the M/V Flintstone, a Dutch “fall pipe” vessel.  During the attack, a gun fight erupted between the pirate attackers and the vessel’s armed security detail, formally known on Dutch vessels as a Vessel Protection Detachment.  The fire fight resulted in several pirates being injured and forced them to retreat back to the dhow.

Meanwhile, the EUNAVFOR warship FGS LUEBECK responded to the scene and quickly located the dhow mothership, demanding that the pirates comply with their orders being sent via radio. The pirates, however, ignored the calls.

So in good fashion, the FGS LUEBECK deployed a helicopter to deliver warning shots fired toward the dhow and even direct shots into the vessel’s bow and attack skiffs secured on the upper deck.  Still the pirates resisted, threatening to harm the 15 Indian crew members being held as hostages and warning that they would fire on anyone attempting to board the dhow.

Two days later on the night of January 19th,  with the FGS LUEBECK still shadowing, the M/V ENRICO LEVOLI, a hijacked Italian tanker which we had reported yesterday was being used to conduct mothership operations in the area, rendezvoused with the Indian dhow.

Upon arrival, the pirates again threatened that they would harm the hostages, including 18 hostages aboard the M/V ENRICO LEVOLI, if any military action was taken to prevent the transfer of pirates who had been injured during the initial attack on the M/V FLINTSTONE.

The FGS LUEBECK complied, maintaining pressure as pirates were transferred to the tanker.

Once completed, forces aboard the FGS LUEBECK were able to board the dhow and release the 15 Indian hostages aboard.  Meanwhile the M/V ENRICO LEVOLI returned, with injured pirates, back to Somalia.

A warship with EU NAVFOR escorts a convoy of ships chartered by the World Food Programme. Since its inception in December 2008, EU NAVFOR ships have escorted over 770,000 tons of food-aid in 118 transits. Photo: EUNAVFOR

The following is a press statement from piracy watchdog, IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, regarding their 2011 Global Piracy Report released today.

Pirate attacks against vessels in East and West Africa accounted for the majority of world attacks in 2011, signaling a rising trend, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) global piracy report revealed today. Of the 439 attacks reported to the IMB in 2011, 275 attacks took place off Somalia on the east coast and in the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa.

The report showed  a slight drop in the total number of recorded incidents of piracy and armed robbery  worldwide,  comparing the 439 recorded incidents of piracy and armed robbery in 2011 to 445 in 2010. The falling numbers come after four consecutive years of increased piracy and armed robbery worldwide.

The 802 crew members taken hostage in 2011 also marks a decrease from the four-year high of 1,181 in 2010. Overall in 2011, there were 45 vessels hijacked, 176 vessels boarded, 113 vessels fired upon and 105 reported attempted attacks. A total of eight crew members were killed throughout the year, the same number as 2010.

Somali pirates remain greatest threat

Somali pirates continue to account for the majority of attacks – approximately 54%. But while the overall number of Somali incidents increased from 219 in 2010 to 237 in 2011, the number of successful hijackings decreased from 49 to 28.

The overall figures for Somali piracy could have been much higher if it were not for the continued efforts of international naval forces, IMB reports. In the last quarter of 2011 alone, pre-emptive strikes by international navies disrupted at least 20 Pirate Action Groups (PAGs) before they could become a threat to commercial fleets. The last quarter of 2010 saw 90 incidents and 19 vessels hijacked; in 2011, those numbers fell to 31 and four, respectively.

“These pre-emptive naval strikes, the hardening of vessels in line with the Best Management Practices (BMP) and the deterrent effect of Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel (PCASP), have all contributed to this decrease,” said Captain Pottengal Mukundan, Director of the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC), which has been monitoring piracy worldwide since 1991. “The role of the navies is critical to the anti-piracy efforts in this area.”

Although the number of vessels employing and reporting the carriage of PCASP increased in 2011, the regulation and vetting of PCASP still needs to be adequately addressed, Captain Mukundan warned. Until such time as a comprehensive legal framework is in place, owners and Masters should follow the International Maritime Organization and industry guidelines on the carriage of PCASP.

The IMB report shows that Somali pirate attacks were predominantly concentrated within the cross roads of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.  However, 2011 marked the first hijacking by Somali pirates of an anchored vessel from within the territorial waters of a foreign State – namely, Oman – highlighting the need for ports and vessels at anchorages in the region to be vigilant.

Other African hotspots

Elsewhere, Nigeria and Benin continued to be piracy hotspots. While 10 attacks were reported in Nigeria, including two hijackings, IMB warns that this number is not representative of the real threat of Nigeria piracy. Underreporting of attacks in Nigeria continues to be a cause for concern, and IMB states that it is aware of at least another 34 unreported incidents in Nigerian waters.

Also in 2011 a probable extension of Nigerian piracy into neighbouring Benin included 20 incidents against tankers, eight of which were hijacked and had cargoes partly stolen. Although the average length of captivity for ships taken off the coasts of Nigeria and Benin tends to be roughly 10 days, compared to six months in Somali hijackings, IMB warns that these attacks can be more violent.

Improvements in South East Asia, Indian Subcontinent

In South East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, vessels in Bangladesh reported 10 incidents of armed robbery in the approaches to Chittagong. This is a significant reduction from the 23 incidents reported in 2010 and reflects the initiatives taken by the Bangladesh Coast Guard to curb piracy in their waters. Nonetheless, anchorages in the approaches to Chittagong remain an area of concern.

Indonesia has seen a rise in armed robbery for the second straight year. The incidents continue to be local and opportunistic, according to IMB, and usually against anchored vessels. The 46 reported incidents – up from 40 in 2010 – include 41 vessels boarded, two attempted attacks, and three cases of tugs and barges being hijacked whilst underway.

Attacks in the South China Sea fell from 31 in 2010 to 13 in 2011. This included nine boarded vessels, three attempted attacks, and the hijacking of one tug and its barge.

The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC) is the world’s only manned centre receiving and disseminating reports of piracy and armed robbery 24 hours a day, across the globe. As part of the ICC, it is an independent body set up to monitor attacks, free of political interference. IMB strongly urges shipmasters and owners to report all actual, attempted, and suspicious piracy and armed robbery incidents to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre. Transparent statistics from an independent, non-political organization is vital to encouraging authorities to allocate resources to tackle piracy firmly.

IMB offers the latest piracy reports free of charge. To request a PDF version of the report by email, please visit: http://www.icc-ccs.org/requestreport

Latest attacks may also be viewed on the IMB Live Piracy Map at: http://www.icc-ccs.org/livepiracymap

Photo: MT Enrico Levoli

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence has issued an advisory that the hijacked MT Enrico Ievoli is underway off the coast of Somalia and possibly heading for the Gulf of Aden to conduct mothership operations.

The Italian flagged and owned MT Enrico Ievoli was hijacked on December 27 off the coast of Oman while on its way to a rendezvous point for a Chinese armed convoy.  The vessel had a crew of 18 — 6 Italian, 5 Ukranian and 7 Indian — and was carrying 15,750mt of caustic soda when she was hijacked.

Copied below is the advisory issues by ONI:

AS OF 19 JANUARY AT 1531Z, THE SOMALI-PIRATED M/T ENRICO IEVOLI IS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY OFF THE COAST OF SOMALIA ON A NORTH/NORTHEAST COURSE POSSIBLY HEADING TOWARDS THE GULF OF ADEN AND WAS LAST LOCATED IN POSITION 11-02N 053-06E.  ONI BELIEVES PIRATES WITH WEAPONS AND AN ATTACK SKIFF ARE ABOARD THE VESSEL.

AT THIS TIME, ONI CANNOT CONFIRM IF THIS VESSEL IS MOVING TO CONDUCT PIRATE ATTACKS WITH THE M/T ENRICO IEVOLI AS A MOTHERSHIP.

REGARDLESS, MARINERS ARE ADVISED TO REMAIN VIGILANT WITH THEIR COUNTER-PIRACY MEASURES AND BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR THIS VESSEL.  REPORT ANY ABNORMAL CIRCUMSTANCERS OR EVENTS PER BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES.

We’ve all been there.  That lucid moment when all of a sudden you look around and realize,

“I am wasting my life right now and it’s time for a change.”

For some people, it’s a matter of finding a new job, relocating, or perhaps changing your relationship situation.  For Jay Bahadur, he had a few beers and decided Somalia was the change he needed.

Here’s his remarkable story:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well done sir.

Jay Bahadur is Managing Editor of Somalia Report.com, the leading online news source covering East Africa.

Thirteen Somali pirates were captured on a dhow in the Indian Ocean on Friday by a combination of Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel.

“]

RFA Fort Victoria alongside the dhow that was found to have 13 Somali pirates on board [Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012

[ROYAL NAVY] The capture took place as dawn broke on Friday 13 January 2012 and involved RFA Fort Victoria joining USS Carney to ascertain the business of the dhow, which had been identified as a vessel being operated by pirates in the shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean.In a combined show of force, both RFA Fort Victoria and USS Carney manoeuvred towards the dhow with the intention of encouraging her to comply with the counter-piracy forces. This should have been intimidating, given the size of the two military vessels, but the pirates were determined to carry on with their activities. RFA Fort Victoria was tasked to take positive action to disrupt the progress of the vessel.

RFA Fort Victoria deployed her Royal Navy Lynx Mk8 helicopter with Royal Marines maritime snipers on board who issued various clear warnings to the suspects to stop.

Despite these measures, the dhow failed to comply with repeated instructions to stop and verify her intentions. Immediately afterwards, Royal Marines in speedboats approached the vessel and successfully boarded it. The pirates surrendered as the Marines took control of the dhow.

13 Somali pirates were found to be on board together with a selection of weapons.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:

“This operation off the coast of Somalia is a clear demonstration of Britain’s ability to tackle piracy that threatens our interests. The Royal Navy and Royal Marines are playing a crucial role in securing and protecting international sea lanes that are vital to global trade. The Royal Navy and Royal Marines can be proud of this successful interception.”