Pirates hijacked 49 vessels worldwide in 2009

15.01.2010
In 2009 number of pirate attacks has increased on 38.5% in contrast with the previous year and made 406 incidents; Somalia accounts for more than half of them, says annual piracy report issued by International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

It has not been such piracy outbursts since 2003. Somali corsairs made 217 acts of piracy last year with 47 vessels hijacked and 867 crewmembers taken hostage.

There were 116 pirate attacks against civil ships in the Gulf of Aden in 2009; that is 24 incidents more than in the previous year. Mostly, pirates' targets were dry cargo ships; 10 crewmen of assaulted vessels were wounded, 4 killed, 1 lost.

Somali pirates attack more and more desperately, sailing somewhat 1,000 nautical miles off Somali capital city Mogadishu. Having faced presence of international navies in the Gulf of Aden pirates directed their eyes on east coast Somalia and Indian Ocean where they have attacked vessels 33 times and captured 13 ships since Oct 2009.

For Nigeria, there were reported of 28 incidents last year; of these one resulted in vessel seizure; one sailor was killed. According to some external sources, Nigerian pirates carried out at least 30 unreported attacks in 2009.

Fifteen incidents occurred off Indonesia; in the Malacca Straits – 2; in the Singapore Straits – 9 (against 6 in 2008); in the South China Sea – 13 (the highest number in the previous 5 years), of these 1 vessel was captured. Of the 17 ships attacked off Bangladesh last year, 14 lost ship stores.

South American states reported of 37 incidents as compared to 14 in 2008. Twelve of them have occurred off Peru (against 5 in 2008). Pirates have also operated near Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti and Venezuela. Most of these attacks resulted in vessel seizures.

Totally, in 2009 worldwide statistics on piracy reports that sea robbers fired at 120 ships, hijacked 49 vessels (as compared to 46 in 2008) and have taken hostage 1052 crewmembers. Eight sailors were killed, 68 were wounded.

Source: RusNavy.com, photo: Somali pirate (novinite.com)