Sea kidnappings rise in 2016 despite plummeting global piracy, report says

More crew members were kidnapped at sea in 2016 than in any of the previous 10 years, despite global piracy reaching its lowest levels since 1998, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported on Tuesday.

In its 2016 annual piracy report, IMB recorded 191 incidents of piracy and armed robbery on the world’s seas.

“The continued fall in piracy is good news, but certain shipping routes remain dangerous, and the escalation of crew kidnapping is a worrying trend in some emerging areas,” said Pottengal Mukundan, director of IMB, whose Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) has monitored world piracy since 1991. “The kidnappings in the Sulu Sea between East Malaysia and the Philippines are a particular concern.”

IMB noted in a press release that the kidnapping of ocean-going merchant vessels in the Sulu Sea and their transfer to the southern Philippines represents a notable escalation in attacks. In the last quarter, IMB reported, 12 crew members were kidnapped from two cargo vessels underway and an anchored fishing vessel, and in November, a bulk carrier was fired upon but pirates were not able to board the vessel. Earlier in 2016, crew members were kidnapped in three attacks on vulnerable slow-moving tugs and barges, IMB said, adding that it advises charterers and owners to consider avoiding the Sulu Sea by routing vessels west of Kalimantan.

Worldwide in 2016, 150 vessels were boarded, 12 vessels were fired upon, seven were hijacked, and 22 attacks were thwarted. The number of hostages fell to 151, the release noted.

Maritime kidnappings, however, showed a threefold increase on 2015. Pirates kidnapped 62 people for ransom in 15 separate incidents in 2016. Just over half were captured off West Africa, while 28 were kidnapped from tugs, barges, fishing boats, and more recently merchant ships, around Malaysia and Indonesia.

Related: Sea piracy drops to 21-year low in first half of 2016: global report

The Gulf of Guinea remained a kidnap hotspot in 2016, with 34 crew members taken in nine separate incidents. Three vessels were hijacked in the region. There was also a noticeable increase in attacks reported off Nigeria, the release said: 36 incidents in 2016, up from 14 in 2015. These included nine of the 12 vessels fired upon worldwide in 2016. Some were almost 100 nautical miles from the coastline.

Meanwhile, Indonesian piracy incidents fell from 108 in 2015 to 49 in 2016. Although the overwhelming majority were low-level thefts, vessels were boarded in all but three of the incidents.

IMB recorded two incidents off Somalia. Pirates attempted to attack a container vessel in the Gulf of Aden in May and fired on a product tanker in the Somali basin some 300 nautical miles from shore in October. “For IMB, this latest incident demonstrates that the capacity and intent to attack merchant shipping still exists off Somalia,” the release added.

Elsewhere, Peru reported 11 incidents – 10 of them at the country’s main port of Callao – compared to zero in 2015. The number of incidents in Vung Tau, Vietnam dropped from 15 in 2015 to seven in 2016. Bangladesh also witnessed a decrease, down from 11 in 2015 to three in 2016.