Unbeaten but Under Pressure

One reason for the decline in successful attacks has been the increased use by shipping of armed guards and other security measures. But as successful attacks decline, ransom prices have risen: the average pay climbed to $5m in 2011 from $4m in 2010, according to the US-based Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.

Somalia pirates: Unbeaten but under pressure

Nairobi – Foreign navies and armed guards on boats have badly dented the cutthroat capabilities of marauding Somali pirates, but ending the scourge requires land-based solutions, analysts warn.

Somalia’s pirates remain a fearsome force prowling far across the Indian Ocean seizing ships for ransom, costing the world billions of dollars each year and now branching out to increasing land-based attacks.

“Success rates have plummeted, and pirates have a hard time capturing ships,” said Stig Jarle Hansen, a Norwegian academic and Somalia expert, noting increased assaults by foreign navies on vessels used as pirate “motherships”.

One reason for the decline in successful attacks has been the increased use by shipping of armed guards and other security measures, said J Peter Pham, of the Atlantic Council think tank.

“Most of the credit actually belongs to the shipping industry… whose adoption of defensive “best practices” and increased deployment of private armed security has effectively hardened vessels against seizure,” Pham said.

But as successful attacks decline, ransom prices have risen: the average pay climbed to $5m in 2011 from $4m in 2010, according to the US-based Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.

Somali attacks cost the world about $7bn in 2011, including more than $2bn for military operations, armed guards and equipment to protect ships, the group estimated in a report earlier this month.

Multiple pirate gangs hold a grim trophy haul of at least 34 vessels and over 400 hostages, according to the monitoring group Ecoterra, many seized by the use of small skiffs, grappling hooks and rocket-propelled grenades.

However, while such “aggressive levels” of foreign……….[access full article here]