By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Rear Admiral Hank Ort, of the Netherlands Navy, said the lure of easy riches and absence of other opportunities was increasing the number of Somali pirates, who can expect an average $3.3m ransom for a ship.
Some invest their gains in better equipment allowing them to operate further out in the Indian Ocean.
This year, a ship was captured 1,300 nautical miles (2,400 nautical km) off Somalia’s coast, the most distant successful attack.
“It’s a successful business model for them,” said Adm Ort.
“There are lots of youths that can be hired to engage in this and they have very little alternative. That explains why the pirate activity is growing.”
There have been 125 attempted hijackings off the Somali coast this year with 34 vessels seized, according to the International Maritime Bureau, compared with 168 and 32 respectively between January and September last year.
However, Adm Ort said Nato’s naval forces had almost entirely stopped successful hijackings in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia, once the prime spot for piracy. Nearly all ships seized in the area had failed to follow advice on making ships hard to board, or to register their presence with international forces.
Attacks in the 2.6m sq miles (8.8m sq km) of Indian Ocean within range of the pirates were a much greater challenge, said Adm Ort. Responding to a distress call within an hour in this area of ocean would require 83 warships each with a helicopter.
However, Adm Ort said: “Because of improvement in co-ordination between the military efforts and the availability of intelligence about what is happening ashore and at sea, we have been able to put resources in to disrupt pirate groups in larger numbers.
“We are stabilising the situation.”
Source: Financial Times