The International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) International Maritime Bureau (IMB) announced that it received the lowest number of reported incidents for the first half of any year since 1994 – a testament to its pivotal role in raising awareness to make waters safer.
The IMB’s latest global piracy report details 58 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships, down from 68 incidents during the same period last year.
In the first six months of 2022, IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) reported 55 vessels boarded, two attempted attacks and one vessel hijacked.
While the reduction in reported incidents is indeed encouraging, the IMB PRC continues to caution against complacency – vessels were boarded in 96% of the reported incidents. Despite no crew kidnappings reported during this period, violence against and the threat to crews continues with 23 crew taken hostage and a further five crew threatened.
Of the 58 incidents, 12 were reported in the Gulf of Guinea, ten of which defined as armed robberies and the remaining two as piracy. In early April, a Panamax bulk carrier was attacked and boarded by pirates 260NM off the coast of Ghana. This illustrates that despite a decrease in reported incidents, the threat of Gulf of Guinea piracy and crew kidnappings remains.
Source: ICC Commercial Crime Services