Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf has given the shipping industry a shocking taste of things to come, having beheaded a Canadian hostage sparking fears the same fate might wait await over 20 others being held, mostly crew members from vessels captured by the group.
The Canadian man was beheaded after the group said they would kill him on April 25 if a ransom of $6.4 million wasn’t paid.
Malaysian tugboat Massive 6, Indonesian tug Brahma 12, and Indonesian barge Anand 12 have all been hijacked by the group in the last month. Abu Sayyaf is currently holding 18 Indonesian and Malaysian seafarers it abducted from the vessels off the southern Philippines.
