Pirate attacks return to record levels

Pirate attacks off Somalia’s coast are close to returning to the record levels seen last year as attackers adapt to the international naval presence by striking further offshore and using more violence.
A surge of attacks in the past week has included the hijacking of the MV Frigia, a Maltese-flagged dry bulk carrier, 1,500 miles off Somalia’s coast – the longest-range operation that pirates have ever successfully mounted.
This incident was among five successful hijackings and 19 attacks off Somalia this month, according to the International Maritime Bureau. This compares with 32 attacks and five hijackings in March last year, when the piracy epidemic was close to its height.
The recent surge has disappointed observers, who had hoped that the naval presence off Somalia – particularly in the Gulf of Aden leading to the Red Sea – would begin to deter piracy. In January and February, there were only eight attacks and two hijackings, compared with 29 and four in the first two months of last year.
David Pickard, head of maritime for Drum Cussac, a UK-based consultancy that provides security teams for vessels in the area, said pirates seemed to be avoiding the Gulf of Aden, off northern Somalia. This area is heavily patrolled by international navies, which respond quickly to calls for help from merchant vessels.
“We’re pretty sure it’s part of a trend to more vicious and concentrated attacks, away from the coalition forces,” said Mr Pickard. “The pattern seems to have been that the pirates have been pushed further offshore.”
Off Somalia’s eastern coast, however, naval patrols must cover a vast area of the Indian Ocean, far larger than the relatively confined waters of the Gulf of Aden. In this area, Mr Pickard said that response times were much longer, allowing pirates to keep up attacks on vulnerable ships for up to three hours.
Somali pirates have regularly changed their modus operandi in the five years since their attacks first came to international attention. There has been speculation that some of the latest incidents have been the work of a new gang working from near Bosaso on Somalia’s east coast.
The international naval forces have tried to counter attacks furthest offshore by locating and sinking the mother ships – usually fishing vessels – required for such raids.
Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, said his organisation supported such efforts and wanted to see the naval forces given more robust rules of engagement. By sinking captured mother ships once pirates had been taken off, Mr Mukundan said: “You hurt the people who are financing these things.”
But Mr Pickard pointed out that distinguishing pirate mother ships from innocent fishing vessels was often difficult.   FT.com