Pirate killings hit decade-long high

Pirates slaughtered 30 seafarers worldwide in the first six months of this year – the highest toll in more than a decade – and governments need to boost patrols in hotspots at sea to curb the violence, a maritime group said.

The 30 killings reported globally from January through June compared to 16 during the same months last year and came despite a decline overall in pirate attacks, the British-based International Maritime Bureau said in a report released in Kuala Lumpur.

“Reports of violence against seamen have risen,” IMB Director Captain Potenggal Mukundan said in the report. “Law enforcement agencies should thus increase their presence in these hotspots to prevent the loss of lives and injuries.”

The casualty figures were the highest for the first half of any year since at least 1993, when the IMB began keeping records.

Fifteen deaths occurred in Nigerian waters, where pirates armed with automatic weapons have launched 13 attacks so far this year on commercial ships plying the coast and passenger ferries.

Most of the other fatalities were in Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Nevertheless, the total number of pirate attacks worldwide fell to 182 so far this year from 234 in the first half of 2003, helped by decreasing attacks in places such as India and the Gulf of Aden.