Emerging trend: more kidnappings off Malaysian coast

On 1 April, gunmen targeted a vessel off Sabah (Malaysia), kidnapping four Malaysians who were aboard. This follows the recent targeting of two boats, again near Sabah, from which ten Indonesian crew were abducted; the vessels were later found deserted. Subsequently, Islamist extremist group Abu Sayyaf ransomed the individuals for RM5m. Analysts have suggested that this militant activity suggests that groups are changing tactics. The authorities had heightened security on Sabah’s east coast following a number of kidnappings, and this appears to have shifted the problem from land to water, with kidnappers instead targeting vessels in the region.

Manila: Four sailors from Malaysia have been kidnapped off a cargo ship passing close to the southern Philippines night, less than a week after 10 sailors from Indonesia were abducted nearby, according to police officials from the three countries.

The seizure of the men is the latest in a series of kidnappings in the lawless waters and coastlines of the southern Philippines in the past year.

Maritime piracy attacks are common in the waters around Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Credit: AP/File

More than 18 foreign citizens are being held in the southern Philippines by kidnap-for-ransom groups pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, the Philippine military said.

On Friday, eight armed men in a speedboat stopped a Malaysian cargo ship, the Masfive 6, at about 6:15pm local time near Ligitan, a small island off the eastern coast of the Malaysian state of Sabah, the state police commissioner, Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun, told the Malaysian government-run news agency, Bernama.