Pirate attacks off Somali coast rising: US Navy

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Sep 2009

The US Navy said on Tuesday that pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have recently increased. There have been four attempted attacks on motor vessels in the Gulf of Aden since September 19, bringing the total number of piracy attacks on merchant vessels in 2009 to 146, of which 28 have been successful, the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet said in a statement.
"We make every attempt to intercept the skiffs with pirate paraphernalia before they can attack a merchant ship," said Scott E. Sanders, who heads multinational Combined Task Force (CTF) 151.
"We're not being passive out here; we're being proactive. We are creating an environment in which pirates are not so bold."
Multinational forces monitor the waters of the Gulf of Aden and surrounding areas to defend commercial and fishing vessels in an attempt to keep the area safe for trade and passage.
More than 30,000 vessels transit the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden annually, heading to and from the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, but they face the risk of being attacked and hijacked by the heavily armed pirates, who use high-powered speed boats.
The pirates prey on ships, sometimes holding them for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship owners.
More than 150 suspected pirates were arrested by naval patrols in the region in 2008.
According to Ecoterra International, an NGO monitoring illegal maritime activities in the region, at least 163 attacks have been carried out by Somali pirates since the start of 2009 alone, 47 of them successful hijackings.

Source: AFP