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oggbashan said:
The ultimate solution is a stable government in Somali that allows people to earn a living.

That will take a major effort. The international community is willing to help but Somalia is a cluster-fuck.

Og
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Og, do you by any chance recall the last time that Somalia had a stable government?
Aaah, I thought not.

Loring
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11704306


6 November 2010
Somali pirates receive record ransom for ships' release


Somali pirates are reported to have received a total of $12.3m (£7.6m) in ransom money to release two ships.

They are believed to have been paid a record $9.5m (£5.8m) for Samho Dream, a South Korean oil tanker, and nearly $2.8m (£1.7m) for the Golden Blessing, a Singaporean flagged ship.

"We are now counting our cash," a pirate who gave his name as Hussein told Reuters news agency. "Soon we shall get down from the ship."

All crew are believed to be unharmed.

The Samho Dream supertanker was hijacked in the Indian Ocean in April and its crew of five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos were taken hostage. It was carrying crude oil worth $170m (£105m) from Iraq to the US.

Although released it is still within Somali waters and the ship's 24 crew members are said to be in good condition.

Andrew Mwangura, co-ordinator of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme in Mombasa, told Reuters that the ransom would be the highest paid out to pirates since they started hijacking ships in recent years.

"They initially demanded $20m. What I can confirm is that negotiators tell me they agreed to make the drop with an amount in excess of $9m.

"This would be the highest sum paid out to pirates so far," he said.

The BBC's Kevin Mwachiro in Nairobi says the size of the payment is likely to change the rules of engagement when it comes to securing the release of ships held by Somali pirates. They are currently holding at least 25 vessels.

Earlier reports said the pirates had received $9m for Samho Dream and $7m for the Golden Blessing, but this was later revised.

The Golden Blessing has 23 Chinese crew.

According to a recent report by the International Maritime Bureau, a maritime watchdog, ship hijackings hit a five-year high in the first nine months of 2010, with Somali pirates responsible for the majority.


From Jan-Sept 2010:
Pirates boarded 128 ships
Guns used in 137 incidents and knives in 66
One crew member killed, 27 injured, 773 taken hostage
Source: IMB
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oggbashan said:
Missed this post.

Yes, when it was run by Western Imperialists...

Og
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"We have to free ourselves from the western imperialists, so that we can get back to the business of killing each other and aid workers."
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101114/ap_on_re_af/piracy


British couple freed by Somali pirates after 1 yr
By MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press


NAIROBI, Kenya – A British couple kidnapped off their private yacht by Somali pirates more than a year ago were set free Sunday, ending one of the most drawn-out and dramatic hostage situations since the rash of piracy began off East Africa.

Paul and Rachel Chandler looked relaxed and smiled through a small ceremony held in the Somali town of Adado after their morning release. Rachel Chandler told The Associated Press by phone: "We are happy to be alive."

Pirates boarded the Chandler's 38-foot yacht during the night of Oct. 23, 2009, while sailing from the island nation of Seychelles. The couple, married for almost three decades, took early retirement about four years ago and were spending six-month spells at sea.

Despite an international flotilla of warships and aircraft, pirates continue to prowl the Indian Ocean off Somalia seemingly at will, pouncing on pleasure craft, fishing vessels and huge cargo ships.

Efforts to free the couple by the Somali diaspora, the weak Mogadishu-based government and Britain had failed until now. The couple flew from Adado to Mogadishu, and after a short stop their plane continued on to Kenya's capital.

"We are feeling happy but you know we will not be free until we arrive in Nairobi," Paul Chandler told AP.

In Mogadishu, Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed met the couple and said the government was pleased they had been freed. He said the government had "exerted every humanly possible effort to bring you back to your loved ones."

Earlier in Adado, the couple attended a ceremony attended by several dozen people. Rachel Chandler wore a bright red dress and red scarf around her shoulders. Paul Chandler wore a mauve-colored short shirt and a green patterned sarong.

Abdi Mohamed Elmi, a Somali doctor who has regularly attended to the couple and was involved in efforts to free them, said the Chandlers will now need more specialized attention.

"They need counseling and rest to recover from the situation they have been living in for the last 13 months," Elmi said. "But now they seem OK and were happy this morning. They had showers, changed clothes and had breakfast with us smiling."

Despite the Chandlers' release, Somali pirates still hold close to 500 hostages and more than 20 vessels. The pirates typically only release hostages for multimillion dollar ransoms.

Conflicting reports from Somali officials about the Chandlers' release said either a $300,000 ransom for "expenses" was paid or that a $1 million ransom that was contributed to by the Somali diaspora was paid.
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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=a6mogH6MCEy8


Pirate Attacks Spur 36-Fold Increase in Ransoms
By Alaric Nightingale

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Somali pirate attacks are increasing, spurred by a 36-fold jump in ransoms in five years, raising costs for shippers and the threat to vessels carrying 20 percent of world trade.

The raids are adding at least $2.4 billion to transport costs because vessels are being diverted onto longer routes to avoid attacks off east Africa, Louisville, Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation estimates. Average ransom payments rose to $5.4 million last year, compared with $150,000 in 2005, the non-profit group says. Attacks off Somalia were the highest on record last year, with 49 vessels and 1,016 crew members hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

“It’s likely to continue on its trajectory,” said Roger Middleton, an analyst covering Somalia at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. “Every time some of them are arrested, there are plenty of others happy to take their places because it’s so well paid.”

Escalating attacks are driving some tankers to sail around southern Africa rather than through the Suez Canal, adding about 12 days to a journey from Saudi Arabia to Houston...
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...About 30 anti-piracy ships are deployed daily in the region by groups including the European Union and NATO. The European Naval Force patrols about 2 million square nautical miles, or an area 10 times the size of Germany.

Widening Zone
Somali pirates have widened the zone in which they operate over the last three years to find easier targets as the warships escort vessels through the Gulf of Aden to the north, according to Middleton. They ranged as far south as Madagascar last year, and to within about 100 miles north of the Maldives in the east, reports from the IMB show...
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...As many as 25,000 ships sail through the Gulf of Aden a year... Including a wider stretch of the Indian Ocean where the pirates also operate, as many as 40,000 are at risk... That includes oil tankers, dry bulk carriers and general cargo vessels.

Container ships are less likely to be attacked because they sit higher in the water and sail faster...

Indian Ocean
...Attacks off Somalia’s coast climbed last year to 139 from 80 and in the Red Sea jumped to 25 from 15... Attacks in the Gulf of Aden fell to 53, down from 117, a drop the IMB attributes in part to the patrols.

South Korean special forces stormed a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea last week, rescuing the crew and killing eight pirates. Similar operations were carried out by Danish and U.S. forces last year.

Naval Force
EU Navfor estimates 20 percent of world trade passes through the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia. Ships use it to get to Egypt’s Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. The waterway is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, according to the Suez Canal Authority.

A vessel going from Saudi Arabia to Rotterdam can cut the distance traveled by about 42 percent by using the canal rather than sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, data on the canal authority’s website show. To southern France the saving is 57 percent and to New York 30 percent, the data show.

Somali pirates were holding 28 vessels and 638 hostages for ransom as of Dec. 31, according to the IMB, part of the International Chamber of Commerce...

...In areas of Somalia where pirates have bases, hijackings are “woven into the social and economic fabric of everyday life,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote in a report in October. “The root causes of piracy are found on land...”
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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aGgfVxU8i7fQ


Pirates Hijack Italian-Flagged Oil Tanker Off Somalia’s Coast
By Lorenzo Totaro

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- An Italian-flagged oil tanker with 22 crew members was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean today.

“The vessel was boarded after a sustained attack by one skiff with five suspected pirates firing small arms and four rocket-propelled grenades,” Atalanta, the European Union’s anti-piracy mission, said in a statement posted on its website ( http://www.eunavfor.eu/2011/02/italian-oil-tanker-pirated-in-the-indian-ocean/ ). The attack occurred early this morning about 670 nautical miles east of the Yemeni island of Socotra, Atalanta said.

The Savina Caylyn was heading from Bashayer in Sudan to Pasir Gudang in Malaysia when it was attacked, and “there is presently no communication with the vessel and no information regarding the crew” of 5 Italians and 17 Indians, according to the statement. The ship appears to be moving west toward Somalia, an Atalanta official said, declining to be named in line with policy.

Somalia has lacked an operating government since 1991, and parts of its coast have become home to the world’s most active pirate groups. Pirates hijacked a record 53 ships and 1,181 crew members in 2010, most of them off Somalia, according to the London-based International Maritime Bureau.

The attacks have spurred a 36-fold jump in ransoms in five years, raising costs for shippers and the threat to vessels carrying 20 percent of world trade, Louisville, Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation estimates. The raids are adding at least $2.4 billion to transport costs because vessels are being diverted onto longer routes, as average ransom payments rose to $5.4 million last year, compared with $150,000 in 2005, the non- profit group says.

Atalanta was created in December 2008 and has nine frigates and three patrol planes. It covers an area of 16.8 million square kilometers (6.5 million square miles) off the Somali coast, an area twice the size of the EU itself.

The Savina Caylyn is 266 meters long (873 feet) and 46 meters wide, according to records posted on website Marine Traffic...

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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aGgfVxU8i7fQ
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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=a.DfYGUGiccs


Somali Pirate Muse Gets 34-Year Sentence for Hijacking
By Bob Van Voris and Chris Dolmetsch

Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Somali pirate Abduwali Muse was sentenced to 33 years and nine months in prison for hijacking the container ship Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean in 2009.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York handed down the sentence today. Muse pleaded guilty in May to two counts of hijacking maritime vessels, two of kidnapping and two of hostage taking. Prosecutors said he led pirates who captured the Maersk Alabama and held its captain, Richard Phillips, for five days.

The sentence is at the top of a range in an arrangement between Muse’s lawyers and prosecutors. The defense asked for the minimum, 27 years. The government sought the maximum because of what it called the “extraordinarily depraved and violent nature of Muse’s crimes.”

Muse and his companions boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean and took hostages, with Muse threatening to kill everyone aboard with an improvised explosive device if the authorities came, according to prosecutors.

The pirates left the first ship and went to a second vessel, according to prosecutors. Muse and three others left that vessel and on April 8, 2009, boarded the Maersk Alabama, a 500-foot U.S.-flagged container ship headed to Kenya from Djibouti, prosecutors said.

Armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, Muse boarded the Maersk Alabama, fired at Phillips and forced him to stop the ship, demanding $30,000, prosecutors said.

Accomplices Slain
Muse was captured by authorities after the arrival of the USS Bainbridge. Snipers killed his three accomplices, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation brought Muse to New York.

His attorneys, Fiona Doherty and Philip Weinstein, said that their client grew up in poverty in Somalia, where his father sometimes tied him to a tree as punishment.

Muse worked in fishing communities in the coastal area known as Puntland, where pirate gangs have their roots, his attorneys said. He was driven to piracy by poverty, they said.

Muse was 16 at the time of the hijacking, his lawyers said, A U.S. magistrate judge rejected the claim that he was underage. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan McGuire said last year that he told one of his hostages he was 24...

more...

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=a.DfYGUGiccs
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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aezdfYnpLvJs&pos=9


Pirates Kill Four Hostages on U.S. Yacht, U.S. Military Says
By Tony Capaccio

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Somali pirates killed four American hostages aboard their yacht before it was taken over by the U.S. military and the pirates were killed or captured, according to the U.S. Central Command.

“At approximately 1 a.m. EST today, while negotiations were ongoing to secure the release of four American hostages, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the pirated vessel (S/V) Quest,” according to the statement.

The boarding team “discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors,” and, though alive, they died of their wounds despite first aid, the release said.

Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet, told reporters at the Pentagon by telephone from Bahrain that the boarding party was U.S. special operations forces and they met no resistance at first. However, during the search of the vessel they killed two pirates, one in a knife fight and the other by gunshot, and they found two others already dead.

President Barack Obama on Feb. 19 authorized the use of force against the pirates, according to his press secretary, Jay Carney.

The Americans aboard the Quest were Scott and Jean Adam, who owned the yacht, from Marina Del Ray, California, and Phyllis Mackay and Bob Riggle of Washington state, Admiral Fox said.

The deadly end came after negotiations failed. On Monday, two pirates had come aboard the USS Sterett for talks. Added to 13 captured alive today, 15 pirates were in U.S. custody. The pirates were armed with a grenade launcher, AK-47 rifles, and small arms, he said.

Navy Custody
Admiral Fox said the pirates are in Navy custody and the plan is to bring them “to a judicial process and hold them accountable for their activities.”

The Navy has been tracking the pirated yacht since Feb. 18, when it was spotted by a Royal Danish Navy ship off the coast of Oman, Admiral Fox said. “We have seen a growing problem here in terms of the pirate activity off the coast of Somalia,” Admiral Fox said.

Pirate activity in gulf of Aden has “actually gone down,” but pirates are going longer distances, up to 1,400 nautical miles from Somalia, Admiral Fox said...


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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aezdfYnpLvJs&pos=9
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http://www.npr.org/2011/02/22/133961448/4-americans-seized-by-pirates-found-dead-on-yacht?ps=cprs


4 Americans Seized By Pirates Found Dead On Yacht
by NPR Staff and Wires


...it remained unclear why the pirates — who are widely seen as rational, if ruthless... — would kill their only form of leverage. U.S. naval officials insisted they had not launched a rescue operation and are still trying to piece together events.

Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, said he was confounded by the turn of events.

"We have heard threats against the lives of Americans before but it strikes me as being very, very unusual why they would kill hostages outright," he said, adding that the pirates must realize that killing Americans would invite a military response.

The military said U.S. forces have been monitoring the Quest for about three days, since shortly after the pirate attack on Friday. Four Navy warships were involved, including an aircraft carrier.

Last week a Somali pirate was sentenced to 33 years in prison by a New York court for the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. cargo vessel. That hijacking ended when Navy sharpshooters killed several pirates holding the ship's captain.

Piracy is rampant off the coast of Somalia. The European Union estimates that pirates are currently holding 31 vessels and nearly 700 people hostage.

more...

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/22/133961448/4-americans-seized-by-pirates-found-dead-on-yacht?ps=cprs
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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHBWOOcqwOAA


China, Russia Lead UN Bid to Stabilize Somalia, Combat Piracy
By Bill Varner

March 7 (Bloomberg) -- China and Russia are leading a new effort at the United Nations to curb the threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia and defeat al-Qaeda-linked terrorists fighting to seize control of the Horn of Africa nation.

Russia has circulated a draft resolution that would commit the UN Security Council to “urgently” begin talks on creation of three courts for piracy cases. The measure also would urge construction of two prisons for convicted pirates, and demand that all nations enact laws to criminalize piracy.

“We are trying to take the lead on tightening up the legal mechanisms for fighting piracy,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. “Some very serious thinking needs to be done.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Senate committee on March 3 that the Obama administration was “fed up” with the piracy, and that “we need to make it clear that the entire world had better get behind whatever we do and get this scourge resolved.” The U.S. is in the midst of a policy review on Somalia, and Clinton promised a “much more comprehensive approach.”

Clinton’s remarks followed the killing on Feb. 22 of four American hostages by pirates who seized their yacht.

China, as president of the Security Council this month, plans to lead a meeting on March 10 to call for a more comprehensive international strategy for dealing with political instability, piracy and the threat posed by the Islamic al- Shabaab militia. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to brief the council on the latest developments.

Al-Qaeda Links
Al-Shabaab, which the U.S. accuses of having links to al-Qaeda, controls most of southern and central Somalia, and the transitional government led by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed holds only parts of the capital, Mogadishu. Somalia has been without a functioning central administration since 1991, when ruler Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.

China has circulated a draft statement that “recognizes the ongoing instability in Somalia contributes to the problem of piracy and armed robbery and stresses the need for a comprehensive approach to tackle piracy and its underlying causes.” The statement would be considered at the March 10 meeting of the Security Council.

The statement “strongly urges” Somalia’s transitional government to operate in a more “constructive, open and transparent manner that promotes broader political dialogue and participation.” It also asks UN member governments for greater support for the 8,000 African Union troops trying to defeat the insurgents.

African Union Peacekeepers
African Union peacekeepers supporting government troops have driven out Islamic insurgents from several key positions in Mogadishu since Feb. 19, the mission’s force commander said on March 5. The two-week offensive “helped to stabilize a large part of the city,” Major General Nathan Mugisha, who heads the mission, known as Amisom, told reporters.

The Russian draft resolution acts on the recommendations made to the Security Council on Jan. 25 by Jack Lang, the special adviser on piracy to the secretary-general. Lang, who said nine out of 10 captured pirates are released because there isn’t sufficient capacity to prosecute or incarcerate them, recommended establishment of specialized courts in semi- autonomous Somaliland and Puntland, and a third with Somali jurisdiction in Tanzania.

Piracy in the region costs as much as $7 billion a year in lost shipping revenue, higher insurance premiums and the expense of deploying naval warships to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, Lang said. He also warned of growing links between pirates and terrorists in Somalia who have been tied to al-Qaeda.

Pirates hijacked a record 53 ships and 1,181 crew members in 2010, most of them off Somalia, according to the London-based International Maritime Bureau...

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If all the pirates could get organized they could just sell "insurance" to shipping companies and kick back on the beach.
 
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/14/134545382/somali-pirates-sentenced-in-va-to-life-in-prison


Somali Pirates Sentenced In Va. To Life In Prison
by The Associated Press

March 14, 2011
Five Somali men convicted of piracy for attacking a U.S. Navy ship off Africa's coast were sentenced to life in prison on Monday, though several of them said through an interpreter they wanted to appeal.

The men were also sentenced to serve an additional 80 years in prison on other charges related to the attack on the USS Nicholas.

Defense lawyers had argued the men were innocent fishermen who had been abducted by pirates and forced to fire weapons at the ship.

But federal prosecutors argued during trial that the five had confessed to attacking the ship on April 1 after mistaking it for a merchant ship. The Nicholas, based in Norfolk, was part of an international flotilla fighting piracy in the seas off Somalia.

The government said three of the men were in a skiff that opened fire on the Nicholas with assault rifles, then fled when sailors returned fire with machine guns. The other two men were found on a mother ship with weapons.

One of them, Abdi Mohammed Umar, said he didn't understand why he was being sentenced to prison.

"I did not kill anybody. I did not rob anybody. I didn't attack anybody," he said through an interpreter. "I'd like to be told the reason I am found guilty in this case."

U.S. District Judge Mark Davis reminded Umar that a jury had heard the evidence and found him guilty of multiple charges.

The government is prosecuting a separate group of Somali defendants for an alleged April 10 attack on the USS Ashland, also off Africa. A judge in Norfolk dismissed the piracy charge, but the government is appealing. Oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled for March 25.

Davis said he would request that the five men be sent to a prison that already houses other Somalis...

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...ollowing-pirate-attack-vessel-owner-says.html


Pirate Attack Leaves Million-Barrel Oil Tanker on Fire Off Yemen’s Coast

By Michelle Wiese Bockmann and Alaric Nightingale
Jul 6, 2011

A tanker carrying about 1 million barrels of fuel oil is on fire after being attacked by pirates off the Yemeni coast, in a maritime corridor handling about 20 percent of world trade.

The 274-meter (900-foot) Brillante Virtuoso was going to China from Ukraine, said Andreas Louka, legal adviser to Suez Fortune Investment Ltd., the owner. The crew are uninjured, the ship is being towed by two tugs and there is no risk of a spill, he said by phone from Athens today. The 26 Filipinos were rescued from a life-raft by the USS Philippine Sea, a guided- missile cruiser, the Combined Maritime Forces said in an e-mail...


...Pirates attacked a record number of ships worldwide in the first quarter, taking 344 sailors hostage and killing seven, data from the London-based International Maritime Bureau show. Average ransom payments rose to $5.4 million last year, compared with $150,000 in 2005, according to Louisville, Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation, a non-profit group.

Unarmed Guards
The Brillante Virtuoso was attacked overnight London time as it approached the port of Aden to collect unarmed guards, Louka said. The fire is in the accommodation block of the ship, known as a suezmax and with a carrying capacity of 149,601 deadweight tons, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Suezmaxes are the biggest tankers that can navigate Egypt’s Suez Canal while fully laden...

It would be the first attack on a suezmax in the region since June 11, said Cyrus Mody, the London-based manager for the IMB, whose Piracy Reporting Centre has monitored incidents since 1991. That incident was unsuccessful, he said. A total of 142 attacks were reported worldwide in the first quarter, the most for the period since at least 1991...

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...ollowing-pirate-attack-vessel-owner-says.html
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http://www.npr.org/2011/07/08/137714550/somali-pirates-charged-with-murdering-4-americans&ps=cprs



Somali Pirates Face Murder Charges In Yacht Slayings
by The Associated Press
July 8, 2011

Three suspected Somali pirates were charged with murder Friday in the slayings of four Americans aboard a hijacked yacht off the coast of Africa in February.

Ahmed Muse Salad, Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar could face the death penalty if they are convicted. Attorneys for the men could not immediately be reached for comment after business hours Friday.

The Somalis are among 14 men who were charged with piracy, kidnapping and weapons violations in the hijacking of the yacht Quest. Eleven of those men have already pleaded guilty to piracy for their roles in the case, although prosecutors have said none of those men shot the Americans or ordered anyone else to. As part of a plea deal, the pirates agreed to cooperate with authorities in this case and possibly others in exchange for the possibility of having their mandatory life sentences reduced.

The murder charges were among several new charges handed down by a grand jury that carry the possibility of the death penalty. They include hostage taking resulting in death, violence against maritime navigation resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death. In total, 22 of the 26 counts are death-eligible offenses.

"The charges announced in today's superseding indictment send a strong message to those who seek to harm Americans on the high seas: you will be subject to American justice," FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice Fedarcyk said in a statement. "Modern-day pirates remain a very real danger; the FBI joins our international law enforcement partners in our mutual goal of maintaining the rule of law on the high seas."

The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of California and friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Washington state were shot to death several days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman.

The Adams had been sailing full-time on their 58-foot (17-meter) yacht since December 2004 after retiring.

more...
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/08/137714550/somali-pirates-charged-with-murdering-4-americans&ps=cprs
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...rate-incidents-boost-ship-attacks-by-36-.html


Record Number of Somalian Pirate Incidents Boost Ship Attacks by 36%
By Alaric Nightingale
Jul 14, 2011


Pirate attacks climbed 36 percent in the first half of the year as the number of attempts off Somalia in East Africa rose to a record.

There were 266 attacks in the period, compared with 196 a year earlier, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said in a statement today.

“In the last six months, Somali pirates attacked more vessels than ever before and they’re taking higher risks,” IMB director Pottengal Mukundan said. They fired on ships for the first time during the monsoon season last month, he said.

Shipowners are improving their vessels’ security measures and a strengthened naval presence is also cutting the pirates’ success rate, the IMB said. While attacks by Somali pirates climbed to 163 from 100 a year earlier, the number of ships they hijacked fell to 21 from 27, it said.

Pirates hijacked one in eight vessels attacked in the first half, compared with one in four a year earlier, the report showed. The last hijacking took place April 30, with 44 further attempted attacks since then, the IMB said.

Somali pirates took 361 sailors hostage and kidnapped 13 in the first half. The number of violent and organized attacks off West Africa also increased, the IMB said.

Engine Damage
The Brillante Virtuoso, a tanker carrying about 1 million barrels of fuel oil, was set on fire off the Yemeni coast and suffered engine damage after pirates used a rocket-propelled grenade to attack the vessel, a legal adviser to the ship’s owner said July 6.

Bulk carriers that haul grains and minerals drew the most attacks with 61 reported, followed by 41 crude tankers, 40 chemical tankers and 35 container ships.

Monsoon weather in the Indian Ocean region that began in early June displaced pirates to the Gulf of Aden and the southern Red Sea, the IMB said. It called the 18 attacks reported in the Red Sea area since May 20 “a cause for concern.” Three attacks in the Indian Ocean in adverse weather showed threats remained during monsoons for the first time, the IMB said, citing winds of 34 miles an hour and swells of 4.5 meters (15 feet).

“It may be that these recent Indian Ocean incidents are a sign of desperation on behalf of pirates, or that there are many more pirate action groups operating now than there were in 2010, particularly outside the Gulf of Aden,” the IMB said.

Piracy costs the world economy $7 billion, Mark Brownrigg, director general of the U.K. Chamber of Shipping, told legislators June 22. The Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean region where Somali pirates operate is transited by 28,000 ships a year, he said. Naval ships must patrol an area the size of Europe, and more than four-fifths of Somali pirates they capture are released without prosecution, Major General Buster Howes, operational commander of EU Navfor, told the lawmakers.


more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...rate-incidents-boost-ship-attacks-by-36-.html
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