2023 in piracy was marked by 120 events of maritime piracy against ships, according to the annual Piracy and Armed Robbery Report of the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB).[1] 105 vessels were boarded, nine additional attacks attempted, two fired upon, and four vessels hijacked.[2]
A resurgence of piracy off the coast of Somalia continued.[3][4] The hijacking of the Ruen by Somali pirates was their first successful attack on commercial shipping tankers since 2017.[5][6]
The Singapore Strait[7] Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel and the Somali Sea were frequent targets of armed robbery,[8] with the Gulf of Guinea reporting three of the four hijackings of the year.[2] In December, Somali pirates waged four attacks on commercial ships.[9]
Hijackings only slightly increased from the previous year, from 115 to 120, yet with greater numbers of crew taken hostage and kidnapped in 2023.[2] The IMB called for heightened caution for crew safety, with kidnappings steeply increased from 2022. In 2023, crew kidnappings increased sharply from 41 to 73.[10]
MarExec was invoked but never defined (see the help page).