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Pirates threaten SA waters
27/11/2006 13:27 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Ruthless sea pirates who plunder hundreds of ships each year off the coast of Africa are moving south, threatening South African waters, Pretoria News reported on Monday.
The United Nations Security Council and international maritime safety organisations have urged the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to take drastic action against the gangs of heavily armed pirates.
According to their report, between January and November, 48 ships were attacked around Africa by gangs of pirates armed with an assortment of weapons - including surface-to-surface missiles, rocket propelled grenades, armed helicopters and heavy calibre machine-guns such as anti-aircraft guns.
The calls for precaution also follow South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils' warnings last year that sea piracy was creeping closer and closer to South Africa and that the country needed to "move swiftly" and establish good intelligence networks to stop pirate attacks.
Pirate attacks are down
The report also uncovered that some of the pirates operate phantom ships disguised as vessels in distress.
They are believed to use intelligence operatives stationed at Richards Bay, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town harbours to feed organised crime syndicates with information detailing sailing times, destinations, routes, cargoes and numbers of crew.
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) agreed that Southern Africa needed to take heed of the warning.
Their latest release of statistics on world pirate attacks show that between January and September, 174 ships were attacked by pirates worldwide. This is down from the 205 attacks in 2005.
Of the 174 attacks, pirates boarded 113 vessels, hijacked 11, took 163 sailors hostage, including 14 Nigerian naval officers, kidnapped 20 sailors and murdered six.
According to the IMB, the latest attack in SADC waters took place 10 days ago when 15 pirates in a high-powered speedboat attacked a container ship waiting to berth in Dar es Salaam harbour in Tanzania.
Tshwane University of Technology safety and security department lecturer Henri Fouche said the escalation of attacks showed it was just a matter of time before South Africa was targeted.
"It is clear that pirates are moving their operations further south as they discover there are few, if any, navies operating in southern African waters, especially around countries like Mozambique, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros and Namibia.
"This means pirates will continue to move south, coming closer to South Africa where yachts, fishing ships and cargo vessels will be attacked," Fouche said.
He said another reason South Africa and other SADC countries were becoming a major target for pirates was the recent discovery of oil and gas off the Tanzanian coast and the fact that six million tons of oil were transported around South Africa's western coast every month making this "a gem" for pirates.
Said Fouche: "It is therefore imperative that we start assisting our neighbouring countries to stop these attacks before they reach our shores."
IMB director Captain Pottengal Mukundan said the number of pirate attacks, especially along Africa's west and east coasts, was an "extreme cause for concern".
- SAPA
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