The Abu Sayyaf, a Filipino terrorist organisation active in the southern Philippines with a long history of kidnapping people and holding them for ransom, has started abducting crews off merchant ships.
“In the earlier part of 2016 they were targeting fishing vessels and tugs, but from last November have been targeting large commercial ships such as bulkers and containerships,” Masafumi Kuroki, executive director at the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre, told TradeWinds at a briefing the organisation held in Singapore this week.
