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Showing posts with label Anti-Piracy Agreements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-Piracy Agreements. Show all posts
Capt. Heidi Agle, the commodore, had been directing a training exercise against piracy with maritime agencies of Ghana when the hijacking provided a real-life lesson, she said in a telephone interview Friday from her base in Italy. First word came from the French Embassy, which sent information to Agle's USNS Spearhead via Ghanaian officials and U.S. diplomats of a possible pirate ship loitering off Abidjan, Ivory Coast. There, pirates seized the Dubai-owned MT Maximus, on lease to a South Korean company and carrying 4,700 tons of diesel fuel, on Feb. 11. The Spearhead tracked down the hijacked Maximus, identified it and then monitored its
Area involved
progress for two days as it sailed from Ivorian into Ghanaian waters. Then Agle handed over to Ghana's Navy, which continued to shadow the ship until it entered the waters of Togo, when that country's navy took over.
Eventually, after the hijacked ship neared the waters of Sao Tome and Principe the Nigerian navy successfully assaulted the captured ship and took the ship back. One pirate died during the recapture.
The rescue was directed by Nigerian Rear Admiral Henry Babalola, who told the AP that it was made possible by a maritime agreement allowing Nigeria to patrol Sao Tome's waters. "When we challenged them (the pirates), they said that they were in international waters" with the law of the sea on their side. But the agreement allowed the Nigerians to storm the ship after eight hours of attempted negotiations. "International cooperation is the new mantra for maritime security," Babalola said. "We cannot go it alone." Six pirates were captured and 18 crew members freed. Several pirates escaped with two crew members who remain hostages, Steffen said.
PIRACY hit an all-time high in the first three months of 2011, with 142 attacks worldwide, driven mainly by raids off the lawless Somali coast, a maritime watchdog said.
A total of 97 attacks were recorded off Somalia in the first quarter, up from 35 in the same period last year, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said in a report today.
Worldwide, marauding sea bandits' hijacked 18 vessels and took 344 crew members as hostage, and kidnapped six seafarers from their boats. A further 45 vessels were boarded, and 45 more reported being fired upon.
"Figures for piracy and armed robbery at sea in the past three months are higher than we've ever recorded in the first quarter of any past year," said Pottengal Mukundan, director of the IMB's Piracy Reporting Centre, which has monitored incidents worldwide since 1991.
Mukundan said in the first three months of the year, pirates killed seven crew and wounded 34.
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At the last count, on 31 March, IMB figures showed that Somali pirates were holding captive 596 crew members on 28 ships.
Current NATO warning for the Somali piracy threat:
The current assessment is that there are at least one active dhow PAG in the Arabian Sea. In addition, the fishing vessel JIH CHUN TSAI 68 is still missing and may be active in this area. This is a minimum figure and there remains the possibility that other dhows have got underway from Pirate anchorages and are now also in the area. No other recent activity of note.
Although a low level of activity and recent disruptions of counter piracy forces in the southern Somali Basin, at least one whaler PAG is assessed to be active, possibly along the Kenyan/ Tanzanian coast towards the Mozambique Channel.
Recent reports of piracy in the Gulf of Aden area are showing a slight increase of activity. A mother ship dhow is possibly operating in this area.
In Bab al Mandeb strait area it is not unusual that fishermen carry guns and that they do attempt to fish close to the wake of larger vessels possibly causing confusion.
There has been a lot of discus[sion] [about] how to combat piracy effectively. And there is a tendency to use small and fast boats that can carry a light armament outside (enough to deter pirates or provide self defense) and a VBSS them inside. The Dutch Navy used their LPD, HNLMS Johan de Witt as mothership and conducted patrols with their LCVPs and LCU's based in the amphibious ship. This tactic was not without some success.
Thus Yonca Onuk shipyard in cooperation with Aselsan has developed a concept called Kangal. Kangal is an indigenous shepherd dog race.
In the heart of this concept lies the MRTP 22 fast intervention boat. MRTP 22 is a derivat[ive] of the SAT Infiltration Boat build by the shipyard for Turkish naval special forces. The MRTP was designed special for littoral operations and offers high standards of habitability, usability and maintenance.
Well worth reading it all and then watching this video on the concept:
That van full of electronics? Looks very similar to the old U.S. Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit TSQ-108A vans, which we, on occasion, mounted on ships . . . and other platforms.
A HIGH-level meeting of 17 States from the Western Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and Red Sea areas, convened by IMO in Djibouti to help address the problem of piracy and armed robbery against ships off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, has adopted a Code of Conduct concerning the Repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.
The Code of Conduct recognizes the extent of the problem of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the region. The counties involved have declared their intention to “co operate to the fullest possible extent, and in a manner consistent with international law, in the repression of piracy and armed robbery against ships, with a view towards sharing and reporting relevant information through a system of national focal points and information centres; interdicting ships suspected of engaging in acts of piracy or armed robbery against ships; ensuring that persons committing or attempting to commit acts of piracy or armed robbery against ships are apprehended and prosecuted; and facilitating proper care, treatment, and repatriation for seafarers, fishermen, other shipboard personnel and passengers subject to acts of piracy or armed robbery against ships, particularly those who have been subjected to violence”.
An IMO statement says that the participating countries intend to fully co-operate in the arrest, investigation and prosecution of persons who have committed piracy or are reasonably suspected of having committed piracy; seize suspect ships and the property on board such ships; and rescue ships, persons, and property subject to acts of piracy. These acts would be consistent with international law.
The Code also covers the possibilities of shared operations, such as nominating law enforcement or other authorized officials to embark in the patrol ships or aircraft of another signatory.
“The adoption of this instrument shows that countries in the region are willing to act concertedly and together, contributing to the ongoing efforts of the broader international community to fight the scourge of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the area,” UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said of the Code of Conduct adopted yesterday at a high-level meeting in Djibouti convened by his agency.
Nine countries – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Yemen – have already signed the Code, which calls for shared operations, such as nominating law enforcement or other authorized officials to embark in the patrol ships or aircraft of another signatory.
The meeting was attended by ministers and senior officials from Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania and Yemen, as well as observers from other IMO members, UN specialized agencies and international and regional inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. The Code is open for signature by the 21 countries in the region.
“Like the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia (RECAAP), which was concluded in November 2004 by 16 countries in Asia, I have every faith that the Code of Conduct will prove to be the starting point for successful cooperation and coordination in the region, which will bear fruit in the suppression of piracy and armed robbery against ships,” Mr. Mitropoulos said.
Representatives of States that have sent naval forces to protect shipping off Somalia, including China, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and United Kingdom, also attended the four-day meeting, as did the UN World Food Programme (WFP), whose chartered food aid ships have been hijacked on several occasions.
