Piracy & Armed Robbery News & Figures

The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC) is the world’s only manned centre receiving and disseminating reports of piracy and armed robbery 24 hours a day, across the globe. As part of the ICC, it is an independent body set up to monitor attacks, free of political interference. IMB strongly urges shipmasters and owners to report all actual, attempted, and suspicious piracy and armed robbery incidents to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre. Transparent statistics from an independent, non-political organization is vital to raising awareness and encouraging authorities to allocate resources to tackle piracy and armed robbery firmly. The IMB PRC is funded purely on donations. To support the PRC please contact the IMB.

Help us Help our seafarers.

Please give due credit to the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) for use of any information from this website.

Updated on 23 May 2013:

Worldwide Incidents 2013: 106 reported incidents including four hijackings.

Somali related incidents 2013: Seven reported ncidents including one hijacking.

Current crew / vessels held by Somali pirates: hostages - 71 / vessels - 5

Nigeria related incidents 2013: 19 reported incidents including one hijacking.

For more information please contact the IMB on +44 (0) 20 7423 6960

Maritime Piracy-Humanitarian Response to Piracy (MPHRP) (www.mphrp.org)

The objectives of the MPHRP are to implement a model for assisting and responding to seafarers and their families with regards to the humanitarian aspects of a traumatic incident caused by piracy, armed robbery or being taken hostage.  In this regard the MPHRP has published good practice guidelines for Shipping Companies and Manning Agents for the Humanitarian Support of Seafarers and their Families involved in Piracy incidents. The guidelines can be downloaded from http://www.mphrp.org/publication.php

Best Management Practice Ver 4: (dated 18 Aug 2011)

Industry bodies, along with the navies, have developed guidelines to assist masters in transiting the dangerous waters in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast of Somalia.The guidelines, called the Best Management Practice (BMP), is a fluid document which gets updated rgularly as new lessons are learned. To download a copy of the latest version, BMP4, please click here.