Asia has seen a 48% year-on-year decline in incidents of piracy or armed robbery figures released late Thursday show.
A total of 14 incidents – comprising nine actual incidents and five attempted incidents – took place between January and February 2018.
This compares with 27 incidents – 21 actual and six attempted incidents – during the corresponding three month period in 2017.
The figures have been compiled by the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia (ReCAAP).
Of the 14 incidents so far this year, ReCAAP described one as an “act of piracy” while the remaining 13 were described as “armed robbery: against ships.
“The improvement of the situation during January-March 2018 was due to a decrease in the number of incidents at ports and anchorages in Bangladesh and Philippines,” said ReCAAP.
“There was no actual incident of abduction of crew for ransom in the Sulu-Celebes Sea; and no incident of hijacking of ships for theft of oil cargo during January-March 2018.”
However, the Singapore-based body said that the attempted incident reported in the Sulu-Celebes Sea involving the container ship Kudos 1 (built 1995) on 16 February 2018 was “a concern”.
In addition ReCAAP said the incidents reported during the first three months of this year were “less severe” than those reported a year ago.
