![]() ![]() By the end of the decade, however, that number jumped by almost 450 per cent.Īfter some decline in the middle of this decade, piracy appears to be on the rise again. In the early '90s, the United Nations reported roughly 100 incidents worldwide per year, mostly on the South China Sea and in Southeast Asia. ((Andy Wong/Associated Press))īut after being curtailed greatly in the 20th century, the problem has spread with a vengeance since the end of the Cold War, when many countries scaled back on their naval operations. Personnel from a Malaysian police amphibious unit conduct a joint anti-piracy training exercise with Japanese and Thai forces near the Bay of Bengal in 2007. Piracy is nothing new of course it dates back almost to the first time humans travelled by sea. Many have become established criminal operations, equipped with GPS technology, satellite phones and speedy boats. Even if they begin that way, the pirates quickly gain experience - and money from stolen cargo and ransoms. "A misconception is that pirates are somehow haphazard individuals," Sekulich said. Somalia's pirates are well-organized and connected with warlords operating in the country, Daniel Sekulich, a journalist and expert on modern-day piracy, told CBC News. 1 problem, dwarfing other traditional hot spots, such as Nigeria and Indonesia, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy incidents. Piracy off the coast of Somalia more than doubled so far this year, with 63 incidents reported as of the end of September. 21 crew members missing and presumed dead.More than 16,000 ships travel the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia each year. While the scale of the Sirius Star heist was unprecedented, this type of piracy has become an ever-increasing menace for maritime traffic in the waters of East Africa. "In fact, it's getting more serious and more violent, and it's only a matter of time before you need to take it more seriously." Somalia's piracy crisis "Piracy is not going away," Peter Chalk, an international security analyst at the RAND Institute, a U.S.-based think-tank, told Forbes magazine in a June 2008 article. Far from a historical relic, piracy lurks in many corners of the world where maritime authorities are weak and the potential for a lucrative haul is strong. It's troubling news for a world where 80 per cent of international goods travel by sea. "The world has never seen anything like this.… The Somali pirates have hit the jackpot," Andrew Mwangura, who has been monitoring piracy for years as co-ordinator of the East African Seafarers' Association, told Reuters. The Sirius Star, shown in an undated photo, was seized by pirates in 2008 while carrying an estimated two million barrels of oil worth more than $100 million US.
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