No incidents reported to UKMTO this week, although the Maritime Liaison Office Bahrain (MARLO), part of the US Navy’s Central Command, issued one alert to ships.¬†
On May 14th, MARLO reported that a merchant ship had been approached by two suspicious skiffs at 0420 UTC in position 12:44.8N-043:21.6E in the Bab el Mandeb Strait.
MARLO stated that the skiffs came to within 2nm of the MV, with one skiff approaching from the MV’s port quarter between Eritrea and Djibouti and the other passing close, West to East. The MV enforced BMP 4 measures and the ship’s armed security team displayed weapons, which saw the skiffs move away. The MV’s Master further reported a larger vessel within 6nm of its starboard bow, which he presumed to be a mother ship, although there is no confirmation of this.
