It’s early in the evening on Saturday, Aug. 8, and the Singaporean oil tanker “Joaquim” is on its way from the Indonesian port city of Tanjung Pinang to the small Malaysian island Langkawi, bearing 3,500 metric tons of fuel oil. The shipment never reaches its destination. The Joaquim is attacked by armed pirates in the narrow Malacca Strait. The ship is found the next day, 3,000 metric tons of oil gone, the navigation system and communication equipment smashed, and the…

Somali pirates successfully attacked an Iranian and a Thai fishing vessel over the past 24 hours, although one crew escaped, an anti-piracy expert said. There were another two unsuccessful attempts this month. In March, another two vessels, both Iranian, called the Jaber and the Siraj, were captured just off the Somali coast. The crew of the Jaba escaped by overpowering their captors, but the Siraj crew was taken ashore in September. It was the first successful attack in the Gulf…

Five crew members, including the captain, of a Polish cargo ship have been kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Nigeria, according to Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski. “The rest of the crew, 11 people, are still on the ship and they are safe… The ship suffered some damages,” Waszczykowski is quoted as saying at a press conference by Reuters. A group of armed men boarded the ship identified as Szafir on Thursday night while the ship was en route from Antwerp…

On November 13, up to 128 people were killed, 200 injured (of whom 99 in critical conditions) in at least 6 coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris. 8 attackers were killed; 7 were suicide bombers. The exact death toll remains unknown as the situation is still unfolding. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, although the Islamic State has released a video saying that France would not live peacefully as long it continues its bombing campaign in Syria. Timeline 21:00: Terrorist attack the La Belle…

A fleet commander in the Indonesian Navy has said that about 90 percent of piracy cases in the Malacca Strait area turn out to be bogus claims related to insurance fraud or business competition. “The number of criminal cases in the Malacca Strait has declined. However, we believe there to make the Malacca Strait the most dangerous strait in the world,” Rear Admiral Achmad Taufiqoerrochman told reporters. The Jakarta Post reports that both Indonesian citizens and other nationalities have been…

The High Risk Area (HRA) is an area within the UKMTO designated Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA) where it is considered there is a higher risk of piracy and within which self- protective measures are most likely to be required. For the purpose of BMP the High Risk Area is an area bounded by: In the Red Sea: northern limit: Latitude 15ºN In the Gulf of Oman: northern limit: Latitude 22ºN Eastern limit: Longitude 065ºE Southern limit: Latitude 5ºS It should…