KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — World sea piracy fell to its lowest level in five years in 2012, thanks to a huge reduction in Somali piracy, an international maritime watchdog said Wednesday.

The International Maritime Bureau said 297 attacks were recorded worldwide last year, down sharply from 439 in 2011. A total of 28 vessels were hijacked, with 585 crew members taken hostage and six killed during 2012, according to data compiled by the London-based bureau’s piracyreporting center in Malaysia.

The bureau said only 75 attacks were reported off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, down from 237 cases in 2011. Somali pirates hijacked 14 ships, half the total in 2011.

The bureau praised international navies patrolling the African waters, saying their preemptive strikes and robust action against mother ships helped deter piracy. Security measures by ships, such as hiring armed guards, also helped ward off pirates, it said.

“The continued presence of the navies is vital to ensuring that Somali piracy remains low. This progress could be easily reversed if naval vessels were withdrawn from the area,” said the bureau’s director, Capt. Pottengal Mukundan.

The bureau said pirate mother ships and skiffs were reported in the Gulf of Oman, southern Red Sea and the Somali basin. As at end of last year, Somali pirates still held 104 hostages on eight ships and 23 more were detained on land.

The report said waters off east and west Africa remained dangerous. Piracy rose in the Gulf of Guinea with 58 incidents recorded last year, including 10 hijackings and 207 crew members taken hostage. It said pirates in this area were particularly violent, with guns reported in at least 37 of the attacks.

Nigeria accounted for 27 incidents last year, up from 10 in 2011. Togo saw an increase from five reports in 2011 to 15 in 2012, including four hijackings.

The Ivory Coast had just one incident in 2011 but five in 2012, including the first-ever hijacking of a tanker off its shores.

Four vessels were hijacked in Southeast Asia, including a Malaysian tanker that was recaptured in Vietnam in the last quarter of 2012.

Across the Indonesian archipelago, the bureau said there were 81 reports of petty theft, accounting for more than a quarter of global incidents in 2012.

 

Source: AP

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1 COMMENT

      • I heard your Darood father used to be captan of that boat Kaboon ! He was know as Captan Sanweyn lol !

        • how's the research of your biological father coming up? made any progress yet..

          lool Ayanle who said Kaboon's dad is Darood, the dude isn't even Somali. He's habashie I bet.

          • aYANLE

            I am too beautiful to be darood and i don't cry when people do better then me like daroods do

  4. That's bad news for the tribal enclave of Pirateland and PiratelandgeezerPISS. It has been a bad year for all the tribal enclaves and fantastic year for the Somali nationalists. Tribalism always fails no matter what cloud they hide behind whether the fake "genocide" or piracy.

  5. Faroole and his pirate gangs are playing a waiting game they have stocked up on plenty of tuna fish they stole from the galgala community and expect the global navies to simply get tired of their patrols and some day return home.

    The cost of patrolling the pirate coast of puntland-province is in the range of $7Billion for 2011. The pirates have since been trained by saracen forces and present a more deadlier threat to international shipping. As soon as naval activity drops in the piracy zone hijacking will once again climax and these pirates have both unlimited supply of willing recruits and endless time to play a hide and seek game for ever.

    Satellite imaging can easily show the definitive correlations between increased government construction projects and piracy. Puntland-province governor Faroole has clearly been collecting funds with both hands on one hand from the pirates the other hand from international community to fight piracy.

    I don't blame Faroole when the international community over estimates it's intelligence and assumes a role for which it is ill prepared to prevent being exploited. We need to award Faroole the golden FOX award for outsmarting the Caucasian at their own global exploitation games..

  6. TO all diluted folks INCLUDING kayse failed samale project.

    PUNTLAND STATE OF SOMALIA it's not pirate place as you wish. Puntland is functioning state own goverment semi-autonomous flag,parliament,own constitution, OWN BUDGET, arm forces and more than three million inhabitant live peace stability tranquility prosperity.

    Here is the fact what Puntland done for them self's and rest of somalis since collapse central goverm.

    – No infrastructure was intact when they started create this state,today everybody can see the result.
    – They never try to create imaginary fake country like s/land region thoe they could if want to.
    – Today more than two hundrad thousand other ethnic groups from other parts of somalia live Puntland
    – Puntland host mediate facilitated somali meeting creation of somali goverment,they are responsible
    – The IC specially UN give them big credit laying good foundation somali governance and leadership.

    Somaliland region done everything opposite what Puntland done, no wonder can't compare these two.
    Those folks who believe and using tribal card Puntland or Jubbalnd will disapear, you need to think hard because your living dream world. the party have not start yet.
    –

    • verdict.

      Hargeisa and mogadishu it's no longer only cities exist in somalia, also there is Garowe Puntland,Jubbaland kismayo,bay and bakool beydhabo. Hargeisa and Mogadishu were all the somali problem for the last twenty years originated.

      To give you crush course, Puntland is semi-autonomous state,total land mass 212.510 square km,population over 3.2 million.

    • I heard on a BBC show today that your Darood father Captain Ahmed Sanweyn now in Burco is looking for his abandoned child Who goes by the name of Kaboon TimaJareer !
      Whoaaa he must really miss you boy !

  9. If the piracy in Puntland has slightly tapered off, so should the world feel a bit safer now, I don't think so…
    is there a compiled data available wrt the human smuggling activities in Puntland as well? if not,
    why not? who is supposed to be monitoring it?

  10. MR suffering from dyslexia in what words don't you understand "I will hold you accountable and will ask you this question again in a few month time to see how Puntland is faring ( get it faring – ferrying lol ) when the Pirate money runs dry"

    Puntland never created the government but were part of it again is seems that either you cant read or your brain haven't got the intellectual capability to do so because i've clearly stated that "as soon as Puntland don't get its way in Mogadishu they crawl back into their cave from where they turn into saboteurs"

    Anyways it seems i'm wasting my time by arguing with a person that's got the brain size of a pea.

    • PS can you prove to me about your claim that none Puntlanders that have settled there through time (for an example the Rahanweyns) are being represented out of your so called twenty five different groups Myth ?

    • Samale fake project.

      Get back to your cave, because that is where exactly you BELONG. STOP eating beans or over chew mirra so Your braincells can go back to normal it seems your not understanding anything.

      Puntland was responsible hosting putting foundation somali goverment, i don't have to proof that even five year old child knows. put for you hard to understand that, because your brain frozen in time either you ate excessive beans or over chew mirra which contains monoamine alkaloid, amphetamine can cause ( euphoria ). Puntland house of representive consist 66 member strong representing all regions within Puntland state of somalia territory. also those people who came from other section of somalia have large numbers, and settle Puntland have representative in the parliament three are Rahanweyn Do your research.

      PUNTLAND will always SHINE as they done for centuries, i don't think moryan or delusionist will be able to hinder their progress.

      • lol cant even name me one Pm this just shows that your talk is nothing more but XAAR and that no SANE person should take you seriously.

        • well, Ali mustaf he's raxanweyn member of the Parliament Puntland state. Puntland it is not same as somaliland region chronic tribal state or Moryan infested mogadishu freelance.

          • puntland is the seat of all somali problems, the few villages that uneducated darood qarafadhug rule will end in 2018

  11. Oh yeah by the way if you think piracy was a tool used by Puntland, then wouldn't you agree that it has worked.
    But then let's forget about Puntland for a sec, how much fish and other resources have been stolen from Somalia by the World in last 21 yrs. Yeah that's right. I wished we all would've robbed them from north to south.

    You know what they say, the best defense is a good offense.

  12. Breaking news : Liyu police are taking back towns in East Hararghe that were stolen from Somaligalbeed by the Oromos in 2004. http://ogadentoday.com/news.php?readmore=7133

    Now i don't know what their real motive is but good on them words i would of have never thought i would say because these Oromos have been creeping and creeping slowly into annexing many towns that belonged to Somaligalbeed sins then

    We've got the whole of the Liban zone back including Moyale now its East Hararghe turn and hopefully soon it will be the rest like Dire Dawa / Harari / Mieso / West limi and many more.