Indian Ocean Piracy Suppressed

MAST believes current framework remains fragile.

Indian Ocean Piracy Suppressed

EU Navfor, BIMCO and NATO were unanimous in their opinion that piracy in the Indian Ocean is suppressed but not eradicated.  The combination of measures – Best Management Practice 4 (BMP4), Armed Security Teams and a heightened naval presence – are proving effective at ensuring the pirate investors regard the risk to reward ratio as not in their favour.

They were keen to emphasize however, that the measures work in unison, and that any relaxation of armed guarding, BMP4 or the naval patrols may result in a return to piracy by the Somalis. The military believe probing attacks are being conducted to test defenses and these are occurring mainly in the Gulf of Aden. The conditions ashore have not changed and capacity building has, so far, been totally ineffective. Illegal fishing has re-emerged as a significant challenge and two Iranian fishing dhows have been hijacked in last three months.

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Source: maritime-executive.com