The goal, pushed by major powers, was to begin reining in the growing threat to commercial activity in one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. In its December meeting, the council authorized governments that are already carrying out naval operations in Somali waters to possibly extend their anti-piracy efforts to land and air. But UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that Somalia’s piracy problem cannot be divorced from the need to forge a comprehensive peace agreement for the country. As Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa’s UN representative, told an October council meeting, piracy in Somalia is “part of the larger problem of the lack of peace and stability.”

Piracy, moreover, is not limited to Somali waters. Weak coastal states located near shipping choke points (where traffic is slow) are the most likely havens for piracy, says Kerstin Petretto, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. That description fits the waters off Somalia and a few other parts of the world, including West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, which saw 40 pirate attacks from January to November 2008.

But piracy off Somalia is more common. Since the International Maritime Organization (IMO) began keeping records in 1984, there have been more than 440 reported acts of piracy off the Somali coast. “Of these, 120 took place in 2008 alone,” IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos told the Security Council in November. More than 40 ships and 600 seafarers have been seized. Pirates have collected an estimated $120 mn in ransom.

Farther and more brazen

Somali pirates are also sailing increasingly farther into the Indian Ocean from their bases in Puntland, in northern Somalia. One vessel, the Sirius Star, a supertanker carrying two million barrels of oil, was hijacked 450 nautical miles (833 kilometres) southeast of Kenya’s port, Mombasa, farther south than any previous attack. “This incident is significant on two counts,” says International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Director Pottengal Mukundan. “Firstly, this is the largest vessel to have been hijacked. Secondly, the distance from the shore would suggest a highly organized operation – this is not mere opportunism.” The IMB is a division of the International Chamber of Commerce and operates a 24-hour piracy reporting centre.

Rising pirate attacks led to a 12-15 per cent rise in insurance premiums in 2008 and a hike from $500 to $20,000 of the special risk insurance for each ship passing through the Gulf of Aden, which skirts Somali waters. Ships can go around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to Europe instead. But the Gulf of Aden route, which serves about 20,000 vessels annually and carries over 12 per cent of all the oil transported by sea, is faster and cheaper. Nor is the Cape route totally safe. The Sirius Star was using the Cape route when it was hijacked.

‘A perfect environment’

With very little functioning government, long, isolated beaches and a population that is desperate and accustomed to war, “Somalia is a perfect environment for piracy to thrive,” states an October 2008 report by Chatham House, a UK-based think tank.

Within Puntland, the autonomous area in Somalia where most pirate attacks originate, the hijackings are seen as an important source of income, providing jobs and opportunities for hundreds. Fuel suppliers and merchants equip the pirates’ boats.

African Union forces escort a cargo ship released by Somali pirates.
Many pirates started as fishermen. As Ms. Petretto points out, Somalia’s fishing waters used to be a source of community income. But over time they attracted many European and Asian fishing vessels, whose exploitation depleted fish stocks and possibly prompted residents’ “sense of justification in targeting foreign ships.”

Successful anti-piracy efforts do exist. Until 2004, the Malacca Straits, a narrow passage through the waters of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, was the world’s most pirate-prone region, with 103 attacks that year. The three countries mounted daily joint air and sea patrols, eventually reducing the attacks to just 32 between January and September 2008.

Following a June Security Council authorization for naval powers to conduct similar patrols off Somalia, warships from more than a dozen nations, including NATO and European Union members as well as Russia and India, have taken turns policing the waters. Consequently, successful hijackings fell from 53 per cent of total attacks to 31 per cent between August and October. But the area is too vast – an estimated 6.5 mn square kilometres – to police effectively.

Limited capabilities

African countries themselves lack the resources to contribute to such an effort. They do not “have the money for fuel, never mind the hardware, to run adequate surveillance at sea or port security,” argues Chris Trelawny, IMO’s chief of maritime security.

To be effective against piracy, Africa’s coastal countries would need “effective early warning and intelligence services, credible deterrent and reaction forces … high mobility … and the ability to sustain operations for long periods,” says Len le Roux of the South African Institute of Security Studies. Those are precisely the capabilities “sorely lacking in Africa.”

Oil-rich Nigeria, in whose waters most piracy in West Africa occurs, has the best navy in the region. But in 2005 its former commander told the local media that “in its present state” it could not protect the nation’s territorial waters because it was “ill equipped and underfunded.” The waters off Cameroon and Angola are also prone to piracy, but their navies are even less equipped.

South Africa is in a stronger position, and its air force patrols the coast daily. But air patrols can easily miss a ship or the speedboats favoured by pirates. And South Africa does not have a satellite-based security system, which could monitor ships passing within 1,500 km of the coast.

Worse, says Mr. le Roux, regional solutions are lacking. He notes that the African Union’s arrangements to establish standby peacekeeping forces do not address maritime threats. Those plans, he says, leave “the impression of an Africa without a coastline or maritime zone, let alone broader maritime interests such as trade and resources.”

Regional approach

International cooperation is helping West African countries better handle maritime security. The US and European countries are working with local navies to enhance their capacities and engage in joint policing of territorial waters. Such partnerships are partly driven by the area’s strategic interest as an oil-exporting region, as well as concern over the recent use of West African waters by traffickers of cocaine and immigrants to Europe.

But naval training, better equipment and law enforcement will not be enough, says a 2005 report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It argues that strengthening the “legitimacy of governments,” “tackling corruption” and addressing endemic poverty will be vital in denying criminals an environment favourable to illegal activities. In Somalia, the Chatham House report notes, although piracy has been a problem since the collapse of government in 1991, it almost vanished during the six-month rule of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006. “This indicates that a functioning government in Somalia is capable of controlling piracy,” the report argues.

UNODC presented a number of concrete proposals to a December 2008 UN-sponsored meeting in Nairobi on tackling piracy. At the meeting, 40 countries agreed to trace, track and freeze assets of those who back Somali pirates. “Regional cooperation is essential,” UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in mid-December.

As well as going after financial flows, the proposed measures call for countries in the region to cooperate in placing law-enforcement officials aboard warships operating in Somali waters and to bring captured pirates to justice in local courts, a system that has been successful in the Caribbean. December’s Security Council resolution called on Somalia’s neighbours to establish such a network of “ship riders,” as the officials are known, and to set up a contact group for gathering intelligence on pirates.

Nevertheless, African speakers at the December Security Council meeting strongly argued that action to tackle piracy must not be taken at the cost of resolving Somalia’s broader peace, security and humanitarian challenges (www.allafrica.com).

www.MaritimeJobSearch.com | Shipping, Transportation, and Engineering Jobs

1. That all vulnerable ships follow the lead of major industry tanker and other members and route vessels via the Cape.  BIMCO is acutely aware that Pirates will identify this action and swiftly relocate onto the traditional direct trade route via the Cormoros Gap (where the Sirius Star was attacked). BIMCO has advised members urgently to route vessels east of Madagascar and take advantage of varying routes to maximise the sea area to hide during transit. For those BIMCO Owner Members that continue to trade via the Gulf of Aden (GOA) BIMCO has provided very specific advice on action to take prior to transit, during transit and if attacked. BIMCO has also issued advice that it may be difficult to rely on war clauses, even if they include reference to piracy. At any rate ship owners are strongly recommended to consult their P&I Club. Practical guidance can be found at www.bimco.org.
2. That the international community urgently address the co-ordination of naval assets offered up to maximise deterrent value in the GOA area. BIMCO appreciates that there are limited resources and that these are expensive. It notes, however, the success of navies in reducing the numbers of successful hijackings from some 53% of all attacks in August to 31% of all attacks in October. This, however, remains unacceptably high. With the growing commitment of warships and helicopters by nation states these must be co-ordinated by one organisation for their most effective use in order to continue this trend. BIMCO appeals to the UN to address this comprehensively in the next UN Security Council resolution that is imminent. The successful co-ordination of naval units is the only way that the GOA route can be opened up again safely to international trade and avoid unwanted costs to the international community. Indeed, BIMCO strongly believes that such co-operation is the only way to maintain the traditional trading patterns of those nations that rely on maritime trade in the region to conduct business.
   

BIMCO’s Role

BIMCO is an independent international shipping association, with a membership composed of ship owners, managers, brokers, agents and many other stakeholders with vested interests in the shipping industry.  The association acts on behalf of its global membership to promote higher standards and greater harmony in regulatory matters. It is a catalyst for the development and promotion of fair and equitable international shipping policy. BIMCO is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), holds observer status with a number of United Nations organs and is in close dialogue with maritime administrations, regulatory institutions and other stakeholders within the EU, the USA and Asia. The association provides one of the most comprehensive sources of practical shipping information and a broad range of advisory and consulting services to its members (source: bimco.org).

The statement comes a day after a negotiator for the pirates said a $3m (£1.95m) ransom had been paid.

A plane was seen apparently dropping money by parachute onto the ship, which is carrying two million barrels of oil.The owners expressed relief that the 25-strong crew, including two Britons, was safe after their two-month ordeal.

“We are very relieved to know that all the crew members are safe and I am glad to say that they are all in good health and high spirits,” said a statement released by Saleh K’aki, president of Vela International Marine.

“This has been a very trying time for them and certainly for their families. We are very happy to report to their families that they will be on their way home soon.”

The UK Foreign Office said it was ready to assist the two Britons on board when they reach land – chief engineer Peter French, from County Durham, and James Grady, from Renfrewshire.

Drowned pirates

The Sirius Star was carrying two million barrels of oil – a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output – when it was seized 450 nautical miles south-east of Kenya in November.

The current location of the tanker is unclear.

Five of the pirates reportedly drowned while making off with their share of the ransom money after their skiff was hit by high seas.

Somali pirates have also released an Iranian-chartered vessel seized off the coast of Yemen in November, Iranian media reported.

The Delight, which was seized on its way to Iran from Germany carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat, was freed on Friday night, reports said.

A surge in piracy in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes has sent insurance prices soaring, made some owners choose to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and brought an unprecedented deployment of warships to the region (source: bbc.co.uk).

For example, a European Union naval force averted an attempted pirate attack on a Greek oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden on 2nd January.

The ship’s 29 crew members were unhurt.The Avin International controlled 145,242 Suezmax ‘Kriti Episkopi’ came under attack by pirates twice while sailing off the Somalian coast.

Greek authorities immediately notified the EU naval flotilla protecting shipping in the area, which sent an aircraft and a helicopter to the tanker. A frigate also approached the scene.

‘Kriti Episkopi’ was carrying oil from the Persian Gulf to Greece when attacked.

A day earlier, the Indian Aframax ‘Abul Kalam Azad’ owned by Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) was saved from attack by a Malaysian combat support vessel using a helicopter. The fully laden 1999-built 92,687 dwt tanker was also sailing towards the Suez Canal.

Illustrating that the pirates can act well away from their normal zones, Somali pirates hijacked a Yemeni tanker carrying more than 2,000 tones of diesel near the Persian Gulf recently.

Yemen’s Defence Ministry said that the ship was en route from the Gulf of Aden to the south-eastern port of Nashtoon when the pirates attacked it and diverted it to the Somali coast.

‘Yemeni authorities are conducting contacts to secure the release of the hijacked ship,’ the Ministry said.

Meanwhile, the two MISC tankers were still being held by their captors at the time of writing having been hijacked last year. However, reports were just coming through that the VLCC ‘Sirius Star’ had been released, although details were still unclear.

In another move, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has announced a freeze on transit fees in the wake of vessels being re-routed, due to the piracy situation in the Gulf of Aden and the general global downturn in trade (source: tankeroperator.com).

Ship owners around the world are hiring private security firms to accompany their fleets around the Horn of Africa following the dramatic increase in piracy in the region, officials announced here Monday.

So far this year, 97 ships have been attacked and 40 hijacked, including the seizure of a Saudi super tanker Sirius Star loaded with US$100 million worth of crude oil earlier this month, by pirates demanding multimillion-dollar ransoms.

Warships from Denmark, India, Malaysia, Russia, the US and NATO are currently patrolling the vast maritime corridor, escorting some merchant ships and responding to distress calls.

Though Somali pirates were reported to have attacked merchant ships a few years ago, world ship owners are worried their activities have significantly increased in recent months.

This has fuelled a boom in business for maritime security firms, but also led to an increase in piracy insurance costs.

Insurance policies have risen from US$3,000 for a whole year to as much as US$60,000 for a single journey through the Gulf of Aden, with the teams keeping a careful watch for pirate activity and are on hand to help repel any would-be attackers.

Nick Davis, the chief executive of the UK-based Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, said they have 10 teams on board ships in the region.

One of our teams recently repelled an attack on a 150-metre chemical tanker using evasive ship manoeuvres, such as fast acceleration and weaving, plus high-powered water cannons, he said.

The former British army soldier, said: “As the pirates got to within 500m, they realised there was a team on board and so they didn’t bother coming any closer.

However, some of the world’s tanker owners admitted that: “private measures are not enough”, as governments need to provide military support in dangerous waters.

There are also fears among the experts, with regard to fixing the failed state system in Somalia.

This could take years; in the interim, it is likely that private security firms will continue to flourish in dangerous waters, they noted.

Nevertheless, experts agree that the ultimate solution to the piracy problem lies on the ground in Somalia where people are starving, jobs are non-existent and there is no rule of law (source: apanews.net).

These pictures, taken by a satellite commissioned by the Guardian and hurtling over Africa at four miles a second, show the Sirius Star, the Saudi supertanker which 12 days ago became the biggest prize ever seized by the Somali pirates who have claimed the Gulf of Aden as their hunting ground.

The images also reveal a triangle of ships, three of the 40 vessels to have been hijacked in Somali waters this year. Although not as vast as the Sirius Star, the Stolt Strength, the African Sanderling and the Yasa Neslihan are together home to 64 seafarers, two-thirds of them from the Philippines.

With the taking of the Sirius Star and its 25-strong crew a little before 9am on November 15, the number of international seafarers floating in hijack limbo off the coast of Somalia rose to almost 300 and the issue of piracy surged to the top of news bulletins around the world.

The multinational composition of the crew – 19 Filipinos, two Britons, two Poles, one Croat and one Saudi Arabian – may have guaranteed global coverage, but the Sirius’s sheer size and huge, precious cargo proved equally arresting.

The ship, very nearly a third of a kilometre long from bow to stern, was carrying 2m barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia to the US, almost a quarter of the kingdom’s daily oil production.

And although the pirates who swarmed up the side of the supertanker may have halved their original ransom demand to $15m (£9.8m), the situation is no closer to a resolution.

The Guardian’s satellite pictures, which were shot a week ago, showed the Sirius Star five miles off the coast at a latitude of 4.595N and a longitude of 48.085E. But on Sunday, the hijackers moved the ship further offshore, apparently after receiving threats from Islamic militants in Somalia who were angry that a Muslim-owned ship had been targeted.

Two days ago the BBC spoke to a pirate on board the Sirius Star who said a ransom had not yet been set, adding that his men had not been contacted by the supertanker’s owner.

The pirate, who identified himself as Daybad, said the crew were being treated as “prisoners of war”. He added: “We captured the ship for ransom, of course, but we don’t have anybody reliable to talk to directly about it.”

The families of the seafarers aboard the other ships are still waiting for updates. Dr Fehmi Ulgener, a lawyer for the Turkish shipping company that owns the Yasa Neslihan, said the ship’s 20 Turkish crew members were in good spirits.

“They have no health problems but they are bored, although that is to be expected. The company’s personnel department is dealing with the crew’s families and we are giving them information. At the moment, they are completely calm and are waiting for the good news,” he said.

Ulgener said the pirates who attacked the ship, which was laden with 77,000 tonnes of iron ore, had “popped up out of the blue” at midday on October 29. Like many others, he had no idea how long the hijacking would go on. “Our only source is the other examples, and so [the situation] could last for between 60 and 70 days,” he said.

The Panamanian company that took delivery of the African Sanderling just five months ago could not be reached yesterday. But a spokesman for Stolt-Nielsen, the Norwegian-Luxembourgeois company that charters the Stolt Strength, said he believed the ship’s 23-strong Filipino crew were well despite their 17-day ordeal. “If there’s any silver lining, it’s that these pirates don’t seem to be out to harm the crew,” said Martin Baxendale. “It’s purely a financial thing, but it’s extremely distressing for the families of the crew. And although they’re not setting out to hurt the crew, accidents do happen.”

The company is all too familiar with Somalia’s hijacking problem: 12 days ago, the crew of another of its ships, the Stolt Valor, was released after a hijacking that lasted more than two months. “In humanitarian terms, it’s very unpleasant,” Baxendale added. “The sooner we get them out the better.”

Two Western journalists, believed to be a Briton and a Spaniard, were kidnapped en route to the airport in the port city of Bosasso on Somalia’s northern coast yesterday (source: guardian.co.uk).

Maritime historians say that’s not particularly surprising. “Pirates have been around for as long as there have been ships on the sea,” says Professor B Arunachalam, academic adviser to Mumbai’s Maritime History Society. Even so, just a few years ago, it seemed the battle against pirates was being won. In 2006, the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors pirate attacks on ships, reported that piracy cases had fallen from 329 in 2004 to just 239. While the good news is that traditional hotspots, such as the Malacca Straits and Indonesia have suffered fewer attacks since 2004, the bad news is that Somalia has emerged as the new locus of piracy.

There are a number of reasons for this. Poverty is rampant in Somalia and it has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Also, it lies close to the strategically important Gulf of Aden, which is used to ship a significant percentage of the world’s oil reserves. In addition, says defence analyst Commodore Uday Bhaskar, piracy in the region is helped by “the diffident and indifferent attitude of most countries”. “Tackling piracy is a complex issue that most countries prefer to avoid. For instance, a ship might be built in one country, fly the flag of another and have a crew of different nationalities. That’s why, when it is hijacked, governments prefer to let the shipping company handle the negotiations. Consequently, we are in the shameful situation that even today, pirates are holding the world to ransom and creating a negative fiscal economy pattern,” he says.

It is ironic that modern technology has actually helped those who ply this ancient trade. Pirates now have advance information about ships, communicate via satellite phones, carry sophisticated weapons and use fast speedboats. However, their modus operandi remains almost similar to their earlier counterparts – that is, operating stealthily and swiftly. Explains Vice Admiral (retd) Mihir Roy of the Society for Indian Ocean Studies, “Somali pirates use large motherships that carry small speedboats. Once they spot the ship they want to target, they stealthily approach it in their small boats and then board it fast. After they have taken over the ship, they steer it into their own waters.”

The Somali pirates’ successes appear to indicate they are getting increasingly audacious. Just last week, they captured the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star in broad daylight, 450 nautical miles south-east of Kenya. Roy says it illustrates that the pirates “now feel that they can get away with anything”.

Incidentally, the port of Eyl, where most of the hijacked vessels are kept, has emerged as a new boom-town, whose economy is being sustained by the piracy industry. Reports indicate that Eyl has many new restaurants to cater to pirates and feed the crews of hijacked ships. Ancillary professions, such as being the pirates’ negotiator and accountant, are in demand.

With India bolstering its naval presence in the Gulf of Aden to tackle piracy off Somalia’s coast, Bhaskar says the problem needs urgently to be tackled at its roots. “Somalia, like Afghanistan, is a failed state. The conditions on land are so bad that many pirates say that they would be happy to be arrested by Europeans, so that they can live in European jails rather than go back to their country,” he says.

Besides the ongoing naval initiative, there’s much more that needs to be done, adds Bhaskar. “India should take the lead in pioneering a diplomatic effort with other countries to address the problems on land. There is already the example of Malacca, where piracy was quarantined due to regional cooperation between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Similarly, there is a strong case for India to encourage a regional naval task force and try to solve the issue by building up a multilateral initiative,” he suggests.

Perhaps, if all this is done fast, India might just emerge as the nemesis of the modern day pirates (timesofindia.indiatimes.com).

The attack on the Sirius Star, three times the mass of a US aircraft carrier and capable of carrying 2m barrels of crude oil, is the most audacious in recent times.

A large, Saudi-owned crude oil carrier Sirius Star has been captured by pirates in the Arabian Sea. The tanker was attacked 800 east of Mombasa, Kenya Photograph: Caters News Agency Ltd

It took place 520 miles south-east of Mombasa, Kenya, more than twice as far out to sea as other recent attacks on shipping, the US navy said. The International Chamber of Shipping said it believed the ship was 800 miles east of Mombasa when attacked.Reports earlier this afternoon on Arabiya television suggesting the crew had been freed could not be confirmed. The US Navy said it understood the pirates were holding the tanker “near an anchorage point” of the town of Eyl, Somalia, which has become a haven for pirates.

The Saudi- vessel was heading for the US via the Cape of Good Hope. There are 25 crew on board, including those from Britain, Croatia, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

“We are evaluating the situation,” Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet, said, when asked whether the navy was taking action to rescue the tanker.

He said he had spoken to those on board by telephone today from the headquarters in Bahrain. The vessel was hijacked on Saturday.

“Sirius Star is three times the size of a US aircraft carrier and shows how they are successfully expanding their operations,” Christensen said. He added the operation demonstrated a new level of sophistication as the attackers had to scale the 10-metre high sides of the vessel. Previous attacks have occurred within 200 nautical miles of land.

“We don’t know the condition of the crew on board or the nature of the pirates’ demands. In cases like this what we typically see is a demand for money from the ship owners but we haven’t had that yet,” he said.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed that two of those on board are British, but could not give any details of their role on the ship. He said: “We are seeking more information on the incident.”

Andrew Linington, from Nautilus UK, the seafarers union, said the British nationals on board were thought to be a master, and a chief engineer.

“This has come as a massive shock. It’s the biggest ship that’s ever been taken, and it’s a long way away from the area, which up until now has been regarded as the dangerous region; where the previous attacks have been,” he said. “Tankers of this size are usually safe from attacks. It’s a worrying escalation.”

Pirates, often based in Somalia, have made shipping routes off east Africa among the most dangerous in the world.

The route around southern Africa is a main thoroughfare for fully laden supertankers from the Gulf, the world’s biggest oil exporting region.

The Sirius Star is owned by a Dubai shipping firm, Vela International Marine Ltd, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter, sending around 7m barrels per day (bpd) to global markets.

The very large crude carrier (VLCC) was sailing under a Liberian flag and is carrying an unspecified amount of oil. Built by Daewoo in South Korea, the 318,000-tonne, 330-metre-long vessel made its maiden voyage in March this year.

The ship is the largest vessel to come under attack by pirates in the area, a US Navy spokesman said.

Piracy in the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia, has more than doubled in 2008, with assailants using GPS navigational aids and satellite phones to find potential targets, according to a report last month by the international affairs think tank, Chatham House. It warned of the danger a tanker could come under attack.

“As pirates become bolder and use ever more powerful weaponry a tanker could be set on fire, sunk or forced ashore, any of which could result in an environmental catastrophe that would devastate marine and bird life for years to come,” it said.

“The pirates’ aim is to extort ransom payments and to date that has been their main focus. However, the possibility that they could destroy shipping is very real.”

Vela International Marine Limited is the sixth largest VLCC-owner in the world, employing 1,100 people worldwide. It owns and operates a fleet of 24 tankers.

Last week, British commandos killed two suspected pirates who tried to seize a Danish ship in the Gulf of Aden during an operation involving a Royal Navy and a Russian warship (source: guardian.co.uk).