ReCAAP ISC Alert - Incidents involving ships while underway in the Singapore Strait #piracy #marsec

IA 08/2019 23 December 2019 Incidents involving ships while underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait (Part IV)

The ReCAAP ISC had issued three Incident Alerts on incidents occurred to ships while underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait (IA 05/2019 on 23 October 20191, IA 06/2019 on 29 November 20192 and IA 07/2019 on 21 December 20193).

On 23 December 2019, another two incidents were reported in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait on the same day. Of the two ships that were boarded, one was a bulk carrier and one was a tanker. In both incidents, the crew was tied up by the perpetrators. The perpetrators escaped empty-handed after the crew activated the ship alarm.

Due to the close proximity and short time interval between the two incidents (less than two hours), the possibility that the same group of perpetrators responsible for the incidents on 23 December 2019 cannot be ruled out.

With the two incidents that occurred on 23 December 2019, a total of 29 incidents have been reported in the Singapore Strait in 2019. Of these, 15 occurred to ships while underway in the westbound lane of the Singapore Strait and 14 incidents in the eastbound lane of the Strait.

The ReCAAP ISC advises all ships to exercise enhanced vigilance, adopt extra 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.

IA 07/2019 21 December 2019 Incidents involving ships while underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait (Part III)

The ReCAAP ISC issued two Incident Alerts (IA 05/2019 on 23 October 20191 and IA 06/2019 on 29 November 20192 ) on incidents occurred to ships while underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait.

On 20 December 2019, another three incidents were reported in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait on the same day. Of the three ships that were boarded, two were bulk carriers and one was a tanker. Due to the proximity of the incidents, the same group of perpetrators responsible for the incidents on 20 December 2019 cannot be ruled out.

IA 06/2019 29 November 2019 Incidents involving ships while underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait (Part II)

Since ReCAAP ISC had issued Incident Alert 05/2019 on 23 October 2019 on ‘Incidents involving ships while underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait’, another four incidents were reported in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) of the Singapore Strait.

Three actual incidents occurred in the eastern sector of the Strait within a period of five days during 23-27 November and one attempted incident occurred in the western sector on 25 October. The four victim ships were two bulk carriers (actual incidents), one chemical tanker (attempted incident) and one tug boat & barge (actual incident). (Another attempted incident against a chemical tanker was reported on 5 November in the westbound lane of TSS in the western sector of the Strait when the tanker was on the way to the eastbound lane.)

With the occurrence of seven incidents from September to November 2019 in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait (in both western and eastern sectors), the ReCAAP ISC advices all ships to exercise enhanced vigilance, adopt extra 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.

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