Pirate attacks on ships increase by 14% worldwide, reports sea watchdog

MARITIME pirate attacks worldwide shot up 14% in the first nine months of 2007 from a year earlier, with Somalia and Nigeria showing the biggest increases, an international watchdog yesterday.

While Africa remains problematic, Southeast Asia’s Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest waterways, has been relatively quiet, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said in its report.

A total of 198 attacks on ships were reported between January and September this year, up from 174 in the same period in 2006, the IMB said.

A total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 63 crew kidnapped and three killed, it said.

In July to September 2007, there were 72 incidents, up from 47 in the same period a year earlier, marking the second straight quarterly rise in attacks.

“If this current trend continues, it would appear that the decline in piracy attacks since 2004 has bottomed out,” it warned.

Indonesia remained the world’s worst piracy hotspot, with 37 attacks in the first nine months of 2007 — but that was an improvement from 40 in the same period a year earlier, the IMB said.

Attacks rose rapidly in Somalia to 26 reported cases, up from only eight a year earlier, it said. Nigeria also suffered 26 attacks so far this year, up from nine previously.

IMB director Pottengal Mukundan urged ships to stay as far as possible from the coasts of Somalia and Nigeria, which remained dangerous with large numbers of violent kidnappings.

“The level of violence in high-risk areas remains unacceptable. Pirates in Somalia are operating with impunity, seizing vessels hundreds of miles off the coast and holding the vessel and crew to ransom, making no attempt to hide their activity,” he said.