Piracy along the dreaded Somali coastline increased by a whooping 880 per cent from January to June this year compared to the same period last year the latest report released on Wednesday indicates.
The report released by the International Chamber of Commerce 's International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia also shows that Kenya recorded a single piracy incident during the period under review while Tanzania recorded five cases.
The report shows that piracy attacks along the Somali coast increased from five between January and June last year to 44 during the same period this year representing a more than 880 increase.
However, the highest piracy incidents globally totalling 100 were reported in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea region while Nigeria reported 13 cases.
The report adds that worldwide, piracy attacks more than doubled to 240 from 114 during the first six months of the year compared with the same period in 2008.
“As in the last quarterly report, the rise in overall numbers is due almost entirely to increased Somali pirate activity off the Gulf of Aden and east coast of Somalia, with 86 and 44 incidents reported respectively,” the report said.
The year’s second quarter saw 136 reports of piracy compared with 104 in the first three months of 2009, an increase of almost a third.
The highest number of piracy incidents globally were recorded during the month of April where 54 cases were reported while during the same period, a total of 561 crew members were held hostage, six killed and 19 injured.
The vessels attacked by pirates included bulk carriers, container and general cargo ships, oil and gas tankers, fishing vessels, yachts, passenger and motor vehicle carriers.
During the same period a total of 78 vessels were boarded worldwide, 75 vessels fired upon and 31 vessels hijacked.
The IMB Director Captain Pottengal Mukundan said the presence of navies in the Gulf of Aden from several countries have made it difficult for pirates to hijack vessels and has led them to seek new areas of operation such as the southern Red Sea and the east coast of Oman, where Somali pirates are believed to be responsible for a spate of recent attacks.
The report adds that attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia had decreased in recent months after peaking in March and April, with no attacks reported in June but the Piracy Reporting Centre attributed the decline in piracy attacks to heavy weather associated with the monsoons that are expected to continue into August.
The centre said vigilance should nevertheless remain high during this period.
