The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre (ISC) has issued an Incident Alert on the above matter, as attached.

According to the Incident Alert, since March 2016 there have been nine actual and two attempted incidents of abduction of crew from ships while underway in the Sulu-Celebes Sea and eastern Sabah region.  Please refer to the location map of the incidents in the Alert.  Most of the incidents were claimed by the Philippines terrorist group Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

ReCAAP ISC praises the vigilance of the crew and the effective activation of anti-piracy measures which, it says, successfully prevented boarding by the perpetrators in the latest attempted incidents.

The ReCAAP ISC advises all ships to re-route from the area where possible, and otherwise strongly urges ship masters and crew to exercise extra vigilance there and to report immediately to relevant organisations on transiting it (contacts of which appear in the attached Incident Alert).

The ReCAAP ISC also refers to their “Regional Guide to Counter Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships in Asia” and advises the shipping industry to adopt relevant preventive measures.

We hope this will be of help to you with regard to the safe voyaging.