here's the SourceKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Pirate attacks rose by 10 percent globally in 2007, the first increase in three years, as pirates stepped up attacks off the coasts of Nigeria and Somalia, an international maritime monitoring organization said Wednesday.
Last year, there were 269 attacks on ships, up from 239 in 2006 and reversing a downward trend that began in 2003, the International Maritime Bureau said in its annual report released by its piracy reporting center in Malaysia.
“The significant increase in the numbers can be directly attributed to the increase in the incidents in Nigeria and Somalia,” said Pottengal Mukundan, the bureau’s director, in a statement.
Attacks off the coast of Nigeria increased to 42, up from 12 cases in 2006, he said. Somalia reported 31 cases, up from 10 in 2006.
The report said that pirates were better armed and more violent in 2007, with 18 vessels hijacked worldwide, 292 crew members taken hostage, five killed and three still missing.
Guns were used in 72 attacks, up 35 percent from 2006. The report said 64 crew members were assaulted and injured, compared with 17 in 2006, with most of the attacks occurring off Somalia’s coast.
The report said pirates used rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons as well as larger vessels to launch smaller craft that were used to attack ships farther away from Somali’s coast.
Somalia’s 1,880-mile coastline is the longest in Africa, and it is near major shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean.
Somalia, which does not have its own navy, has had 16 years of anarchy and violence, and the transitional government formed in 2004 with the United Nations’ help has struggled to assert control.
Indonesia remained the world’s most dangerous area in terms of piracy with 43 attacks last year, but that number was down from 50 cases in 2006, the report said.
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