Singapore Strait armed robbery
The sharp rise in armed robbery against ships in the Singapore Strait, and why three registers report three different counts.
Armed robbery against ships in Asia has shifted decisively from the Malacca Strait to the Singapore Strait. The International Maritime Bureau recorded 80 incidents in the Singapore Straits in 2025 against 43 in 2024, 37 in 2023, 38 in 2022 and 35 in 2021, accounting for over 58 percent of all incidents reported globally, with 21 vessels over 100,000 DWT targeted and guns reported in 27 incidents against 8 the year before. Over the same period the Malacca Straits recorded a single incident.
Three registers count these waters and none of them agrees. For 2025 the Bureau reported 80 for the Singapore Straits, ReCAAP reported 108 for the Straits of Malacca and Singapore combined, and IMO recorded 122 for the same area. The counts differ because the registers draw different boundaries and use different reporting channels.
The full article will cover the incident profile and target selection, the three registers and how to read them against each other, the littoral-state enforcement response, and practical mitigation for a ship transiting the traffic separation scheme.