Somali pirates hijack three ships

Somali pirates have captured a freighter, a bulk carrier and a chemical tanker - despite a large foreign warship presence in the Gulf of Aden. Ending 2009 with a flurry of hijackings in one of the most profitable years to date, the Somali sea bandits' latest catch on Tuesday was the St James Park - a UK-flagged chemical tanker with a crew of 26 from nine different countries.

Andrew Mwangura, from the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme, said the tanker was seized en route from Spain to Thailand but had been commandeered near the northern Somali coast. He said the vessel's last safe port of call was Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and that the crew included seamen from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Philippines, Poland, Georgia, India and Turkey.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Simon Jones from Trinton International, a maritime risk and security assessment company, said: "The problem is the area of sea they are trying to protect is so vast ... that [searching for] a few pirates sprinkled around the area ... is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

"The only realistic way that piracy can be stopped at sea ... is for those vessels to be pratically prepared to prevent piracy occurring, preventing them getting on board and preventing them from getting close to the vessel ... the navies cannot be there all the time."

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Global pirate attacks on the increase

The first nine months of this year has seen more pirate attacks than all of last year. And more than half of those attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates, an international maritime watchdog group said Wednesday. "The increased activity in Somalia is the major reason for the spike," said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. From January 1 until September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of 2008, the Bureau said.

Of the incidents this year, Somali pirates accounted for 54 percent: they launched 168 attacks. Most of them took place off the east coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping route between Yemen and Somalia. They successfully hijacked 32 vessels and took 533 hostages. Eight others were wounded, four more killed and one is missing, the Bureau said. Somali pirates are still holding four ships for ransom with 80 crew members as hostages.

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Has Piracy Spread to Europe's Waters?

Recently we've become used to the idea of modern-day piracy, as we hear more and more stories of gangs hijacking ships for ransom in the lawless waters of East Africa. But the mysterious disappearance of a 4,000-ton cargo ship off the coast of England two weeks ago suggests the most unlikely of scenarios: buccaneering has returned to Europe.

On July 24, [2009], the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea reported that it had been boarded by gunmen posing as law-enforcement officers off the coast of Sweden and that its 15 Russian crew members had been tied up and beaten. Four days later, the ship — which was carrying a load of timber from Finland worth $1.84 million — sailed into the English Channel, where it made routine communications with British maritime authorities, who at the time were unaware of the hijacking. About 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Britain, the ship then slipped off the radar and has yet to be located. Officials are baffled.

"Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?" a bemused Mark Clark of the U.K.'s Maritime and Coastguard Agency told the BBC. "There didn't seem [to be] anything suspicious. It could well be that a crew member had a gun put to his head by a hijacker when contact was made."

• "Missing at Sea: Has Piracy Spread to Europe's Waters?", Time, 8/13/09.
• Maritime and Coastguard Agency, UK government website.
• IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, website.
• United States Coast Guard, website.
  

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Piracy Upswing Expected Off Somalia

CNN-Piracy is expected to pick up in the high seas off Somalia after a lull caused by monsoon season, maritime officials warned Monday. The Combined Maritime Forces urged crews to take up safety measures, including using recognized transit corridors in the Gulf of Aden and reporting to the European Union's security center before transit.

"The prior preparation and vigilance of merchant mariners at all times of day and night is more important now than ever," said Rear Admiral Caner Bener of the Combined Task Force. International forces made up of more than 30 ships and aircraft from 16 nations will continue patrolling the waters to help fight pirates, according to officials.

"While our ability to deter and disrupt attacks has improved over time, we are constantly adapting the way we do our business as the pirates adapt and modify their tactics," Bener said.

The waters off Somalia are rife with pirate activity, despite increased measures by military forces and shipping companies to ward off attacks. Heavily armed pirates have struck the busy Indian Ocean shipping lanes and the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. They have captured dozens of vessels and hundreds of hostages, making off with millions of dollars in ransom. The Gulf of Aden, off northern Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world.

IMB Piracy Reporting Centre website

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