Three crew members of a Japanese vessel have been kidnapped in the Malacca Strait off the west coast of Malaysia fuelling fears that piracy is on the up in the area, the Malaysian and global press reported yesterday (Wednesday).
Free Malaysia Today quoted the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) as saying that armed pirates boarded a Singapore-managed oil tanker in the Strait of Malacca, kidnapping three Indonesian crew and stealing some of the vessel’s shipment of diesel fuel. “The attack occurred early on Tuesday off Malaysia’s west coast,” Noel Choong, head of IMB’s Kuala Lumpur-based piracy reporting centre reportedly said, noting that the diesel oil tanker was believed to be en route to Myanmar.
Reuters news agency reported that the incident in the Malacca Strait – a route for about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade – had fuelled fears piracy could be on the rise in the area and drive up ship insurance premiums.
Six pirates in a speedboat boarded the Naninwa Maru 1 vessel at 01h00 local time on Wednesday off the coast of west Malaysia, Maritime Police Commander Abdul Aziz Yusof told Reuters, stating that the pirates had pumped out more than half the 5 million litres of diesel carried by the tanker into two waiting vessels.
Attacks by gangs armed with guns and knives on shipping in the Malacca Strait have ranged from 12 to 20 incidents a year over the last three years, says the Singapore headquarters of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP). Most of these incidents have involved the theft of ship’s stores, cash and assaults on the crew.
Crew kidnapped in Malaysia amid fears of piracy increase
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