According to an article published in Channel News Asia, armed perpetrators are boarding big merchant ships in the Singapore Strait with multiple incidents in the past two months.
What happened?
A case was reported case on Wednesday, November 27 involving a crew member being threatened with a knife.
Two of the incidents took place south of Batam’s Pulau Pemping which lies 18km south of Singapore, while another two occurred east of Singapore off Pengerang in Johor. There was a fifth incident where a ship was boarded, but it was not confirmed whether the perpetrators were armed.
Items were stolen
ll of the incidents happened in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait, although items were reported stolen in only one incident.
This is according to reports by the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre.
The center receives verified incident reports from authorities in its 20 member countries, including Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA). This comes after ships directly report incidents to the nearest coastal state.
The center’s executive director Masafumi Kuroki told CNA that shipping companies are concerned about the recent incidents. Singapore should be concerned too, he said, pointing out that they are happening in one of the country’s most important shipping routes.
World’s busiest commercial route
The Singapore Strait is one of the world’s busiest commercial routes, with 2,000 ships passing through every day.
On Friday, the center released a report detailing how two bulk carriers – big merchant ships specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo – were boarded by armed perpetrators in the Singapore Strait.
In the latest incident on Wednesday, five perpetrators armed with a knife boarded the bulk carrier Kmax Evdokia near Pengerang at 4.58 am. The duty oiler was grabbed and had a knife pointed at him, the center said, although nothing was reported to be stolen.
Perpetrators armed with weapons
On November 23, five perpetrators armed with long knives boarded another bulk carrier, Faye, near the same location at 5.22 am. There were no confrontation and stolen items reported in this incident.
These follow three incidents in September and October of perpetrators boarding big ships near Pulau Pemping also in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait.
In the most serious incident on October 19, five perpetrators armed with a gun and jungle knife boarded the bulk carrier Nord Steel at 1am. They threatened a crew member, tied his hands and stole engine spares.
On October 18, five perpetrators boarded the very large crude carrier (VLCC) Hirado at 11.24 pm. It was not stated if these perpetrators were armed, and no confrontation or stolen items reported.
And on Sep 30, five perpetrators armed with jungle knives boarded the bulk carrier Transpacific at 11.14 pm, although there were also no confrontation and stolen items reported.
Recent ship incidents in Singapore Strait
The incidents took place in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait and are categorized according to seriousness. Perpetrators in category 2 incidents are likely to be armed.
Mr. Kuroki said the fact that the five incidents bore similar characteristics – they took place during the dark hours in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait – raises questions of whether they could be related.
“In five cases, there were five perpetrators,“ he added. “So is it the same group or is it a coincidence that there were five perpetrators?“
Mr. Kuroki stated that the center has no information on whether the perpetrators have been arrested, highlighting that it was a concern that they were armed.
“In other incidents, a gun was not mentioned, but maybe they had a gun but didn’t show the gun,“ he said, noting that crew members could only report what they saw.
Increase in surveillance
Mr. Kuroki said he does not know why the five incidents took place in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait, which leads to other Southeast Asian countries and China.
However, he pointed out that the three incidents of Pulau Pemping occurred where ships had to slow down before making a turn. This would make them more susceptible to boarding.
In its report on Friday, the center advised ships to exercise enhanced vigilance, adopt more precautionary measures and report all incidents immediately to the nearest coastal state.
“The ReCAAP ISC recommends to the law enforcement agencies of the littoral states to step up surveillance, increase patrols and enhance cooperation and coordination among them in order to respond promptly to incidents,“ it stated.
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Source: ChannelNewsAsia
