By George.Curtis2 - 29 Sep 2015
Warning for those in Philippine and Indonesian Waters
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2016/11/07/breaking-news/philippine-militants-say-they-abducted-german-killed-woman/An incident of piracy was reported in the Sulu province of Indonesia on 7th November 2016.
The Indonesia’s government has urged Indonesian crewmen in Sabah to avoid sailing in the risky waters until security has improved.
The kidnappings in this area have continued despite one of the military offensives against Abu Sayyaf, mainly in Sulu and the nearby island province of Basilan.
Security Alert - Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort before midnight Monday on Samal Island off Davao City.
Philippines officials said 4 hostages were taken at gunpoint during a raid late on night of 21st September at the Oceanview resort on Samal island, near Davao City, the largest city on Mindanao island in the southern Philippines. Details are at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadians-abducted-philippines-1.3237997
This link includes the following messages:
"[The abduction] is is quite unusual because this is a tourist town, and among the places here in Mindanao, this is supposed one of the...safest," Bernardo said. "It is heavily secured."
The Davao region has been relatively peaceful for more than a decade. In 2014, a peace agreement with the largest Muslim rebel group in the south ended 45 years of conflict in which about 120,000 people were killed and 2 million displaced.
Communist New People 's Army guerrillas are active in the hinterlands of the Davao region, about 975 kilometres southeast of Manila, where they have denounced foreign mining operations and military counterinsurgency assaults.
Abu Sayyaf militants are notorious for kidnapping foreigners and Filipinos for ransom in the vast Mindanao region. The Abu Sayyaf abducted 21 people, mostly European tourists, from a diving resort in neighbouring Malaysia in 2000, then abducted three Americans and 17 Filipinos the following year from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province southwest of Manila.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen are still holding other hostages, including two Malaysians, a Dutch bird watcher kidnapped nearly three years ago, and a town mayor. All are believed to be held by the militants in their jungle bases in southern Sulu province.
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