IMB says Somalia route highly volatile despite lull in piracy attacks

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has warned that ships plying routes off the coast of Somalia remain at risk despite a lull in piracy attacks that enters its fourth year.

The intergovernmental anti-piracy group said no Somali-based attacks were reported in 2015 but the route through the Gulf of Aden remained a risk area.

“Somalia remains a fragile state, and the potential for an attack remains high. It will only take one successful hijacking to undo all that has been done, and rekindle this criminal activity,” IMB director Pottengal Mukundan said on Tuesday.

The current lull solidifies a trend since May 2012 when the last successful hijacking took place, raising hope for more reliable shipping services and lower cost of goods leaving and entering the East African market.

Piracy off the coast of Somali has in the past few years cost the global shipping industry billions of shillings in ransom payouts to secure captured vessels, cargo and crew.

The menace has also led to increased operational costs due to higher insurance premiums and use of longer alternative routes round the Cape not forgetting hiring of special security personnel to escort vessels through the Gulf of Aden and other measures such as watchtowers and razor wire.

Prices of basic industrial and household items have also risen sharply after shipping lines passed on the additional costs to consumers down the supply chain.

A deployment of naval forces around the Gulf of Aden has helped reduce piracy attacks in the past two years. International navies have stepped up pre-emptive action against pirates, including strikes on their bases.

But even as piracy off the shore of Somalia seems contained, authorities in other hotspots around the world registered mixed trends.

In Southeast Asia, a piracy crackdown appears to be bearing fruit, with only two hijackings reported in the third quarter of 2015.

A report by the IMB showed piracy and armed robbery on the world’s seas is persisting at levels close to those in 2014, despite reductions in the number of ships hijacked and crew captured.

IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC) recorded 246 incidents in 2015, one more than in 2014.

The number of vessels boarded rose 11 per cent to 203, one ship was fired at, and a further 27 attacks were thwarted. Armed with guns or knives, pirates killed one seafarer and injured at least 14.

Kidnappings – where crew are taken away and held for ransom – doubled from nine in 2014 to 19 in 2015, all the result of five attacks off Nigeria.

A total of 15 vessels were hijacked in 2015, down from 21 in 2014, while 271 hostages were held on their ships, compared with 442 in 2014.

No hijackings were reported in the last quarter of 2015.

IMB says one key factor in this recent global reduction was the drop in attacks against small fuel tankers around South East Asia’s coasts, the last of which occurred in August 2015.