Sea piracy falls to 5-year low in 2012
2013-01-16 12:26
Kuala Lumpur - World sea piracy fell to its lowest level in
five years in 2012, thanks to a huge reduction in Somali piracy, an
international maritime watchdog said on Wednesday.
The International Maritime Bureau said 297 attacks were
recorded worldwide last year, down sharply from 439 in 2011. A total of 28
vessels were hijacked, with 585 crew members taken hostage and six killed
during 2012, according to data compiled by the London-based bureau's piracy
reporting center in Malaysia.
The bureau said only 75 attacks were reported off Somalia and
in the Gulf of Aden, down from 237 cases in 2011. Somali pirates hijacked 14
ships, half the total in 2011.
The bureau praised international navies patrolling the
African waters, saying their pre-emptive strikes and robust action against
mother ships helped deter piracy. Security measures by ships, such as hiring
armed guards, also helped ward off pirates, it said.
"The continued presence of the navies is vital to
ensuring that Somali piracy remains low. This progress could be easily reversed
if naval vessels were withdrawn from the area," said the bureau's director,
Captain Pottengal Mukundan.
The bureau said pirate mother ships and skiffs were reported
in the Gulf of Oman, southern Red Sea and the Somali basin. As at end of last
year, Somali pirates still held 104 hostages on eight ships and 23 more were
detained on land.
The report said waters off east and west Africa remained
dangerous. Piracy rose in the Gulf of Guinea with 58 incidents recorded last
year, including 10 hijackings and 207 crew members taken hostage. It said
pirates in this area were particularly violent, with guns reported in at least
37 of the attacks.
Nigeria accounted for 27 incidents last year, up from 10 in
2011. Togo saw an increase from five reports in 2011 to 15 in 2012, including
four hijackings.
The Ivory Coast had just one incident in 2011 but five in
2012, including the first-ever hijacking of a tanker off its shores.
Four vessels were hijacked in Southeast Asia, including a
Malaysian tanker that was recaptured in Vietnam in the last quarter of 2012.
Across the Indonesian archipelago, the bureau said there
were 81 reports of petty theft, accounting for more than a quarter of global
incidents in 2012.
- AP
