Somali attacks threaten sea trade routes: watchdog
LONDON (Reuters) - The latest attacks by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa country threaten trade routes in the region, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Wednesday.
Pirates hijacked a U.S.-flagged, Danish-owned container ship far out in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday with 20 U.S. crew on board in a serious escalation.
In the latest wave of attacks, gunmen from Somalia seized a British-owned ship on Monday after hijacking three other vessels at the weekend.
"This recent surge of activity is worrying for a number of reasons, principally because attacks have taken place many hundreds of miles off the country's coastline," IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan said.
"The problem of Somali piracy has now spilled over to neighboring countries, threatening trade routes into their ports," he said.
Pirates are shifting their focus to the east coast of Somalia, away from the busy Gulf of Aden route, after foreign navies deployed ships there to combat a wave of attacks last year. The deployment has proved effective there.
More than 25 percent of the world's oil is estimated to pass through the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, which has heightened worries about piracy.
The IMB said there had been 25 attacks on vessels off Somalia's east coast resulting in seven hijackings this year -- all of them since March 1.
"The surge marks the return of a high volume of pirate activity in the Indian Ocean," the London-based watchdog said.
It said that, since the beginning of April, five attacks had been confirmed, three vessels hijacked and about 74 crew taken hostage.
"These recent attacks have shown that the pirate gangs are able to successfully operate far out to sea using mother ships," said the IMB's Mukundan.
He said vessels not calling at east African ports had been advised to try and stay at least 600 miles from the coast.
"We may have to review our advice in the light of the recent attacks," he added.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
<><><><><><><><><><><>
Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/
No comments:
Post a Comment