Somali pirates hold over 400 hostages

21.06.2010 Somali pirates detain over 400 sailors from 20 vessels captured in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean in 2010, reports Xinhua referring to Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of East African Seafarers' Assistance Program.

As for a neutral organization monitoring pirates' activity, number of vessel captures carried out in the first half 2010 has become the largest in the record.

According to Mwangura, among hostages currently held by pirates are citizens of Ukraine, the UK, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, Vietnam, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Senegal, Yemen, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand and other countries. Some captured vessels were transformed into mother ships and used as floating bases for new attacks.

Mwangura pointed out that it was necessary to liquidate the on-shore origin of piracy.

Piracy emerged off Somalia as a consequence of civil war, poverty, and impossibility to find legal job in this country.

On June 14 foreign ministers of 27 EU countries prolonged the Operation Atalanta for 2 years since Dec 13, 2010; the operation has been conducted in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and part of Indian Ocean since Dec 2008.