By Catherine Stansberry
According to Rueters UK online, incidents of piracy almost doubled around the world in the first quarter of 2009. The website goes on to cite the piracy gangs off the Somali coast as the main impetus behind this upsurge, a fact released by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) last week.
The IBM has recorded 102 attacks across the globe within the first three months of the year, almost double from the 53 recorded in 2008, with 61 of these attacks occurring within the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. Last year the number of attacks in this region within the first quarter totaled six.
Of these attacks, a total of 34 vessels were boarded, 29 fired upon and nine hijacked worldwide according to IBM. “In the majority of incidents the attackers were heavily armed with guns or knives,” IBM officials said. The Bureau also stated that violence against crew members continues to increase.
In addition, the pirates are interrupting aid supplies and trade routes within the region, a potentially problematic occurrence for countries and companies that use the Gulf of Aden and its ports as a hub for commerce.
However, IBM is concerned that the current state of the global economy will only encourage an increase in instances of piracy across the globe. Instances off the coast of Nigeria have also increased since this time last year, with seven confirmed pirate attacks and 13 more presumed to have taken place but unconfirmed by the Bureau.
In contrast piracy within the Malacca Strait off the coast of Indonesia had decreased from 5 to 1 compared with this time last year according to IBM.
Western State Writers Spring 2009 