Pirates set a new record in 2010

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Pirates set a new record in 2010

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Somali pirates abducted a record 1181 hostages in 2010 in 445 attacks, as ship hijackings in waters off Somalia escalated, the BBC reported, citing official statistics from global maritime watchdog the International Maritime Bureau on January 18 2011. Pirates successfully seized 53 vessels last year, 49 of them off the coast of Somalia, the IMB said. Those attacks accounted for 1016 hostages captured for ransom, or what maritime authorities said it represented the "the highest number (of hostages) we have ever seen" since the centre began monitoring attacks in 1991, IMB director Pottengal Mukundan said in a statement, cited by the BBC. Of those captured, Somali pirates are still holding 31 ships with more than 700 crew as hostages. The most recent case involving Bulgarian nationals was that of the 15 sailors who were abducted on board the Bulgarian chemical tanker Panega, who were repatriated in September 2011. Panega was captured in the Gulf of Aden on May 11 with 15 crew members on board, all Bulgarian nationals. The tanker was headed from the Red Sea to Pakistan where the ship was due to be scrapped. The 15 Bulgarians were held captive for a total of 122 days. In another case, eight Bulgarians, 10 Ukrainians, five Indians and two Romanians who spent five months in captivity after their ship, the UK flagged Asian Glory, was hijacked in the Indian Ocean at the beginning of January 2010 were freed in June last year. In May the same year, St James Park, which was hijacked on December 29 2009, with a 26-strong crew including five Bulgarians was freed and sailed to Oman. "The continued increase in these numbers is alarming," the IMB report said, in spite of the efforts by European and Nato forces to curtail the problem. Bulgaria participates, albeit with very limited capacity, in operation Ocean Shield, a maritime operation under Nato. It is currently being conducted in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, and aims to protect merchant and other civilian traffic from pirate attacks emanating from Somalia. The operation is conducted in conjunction with the European Union Naval Force Somalia — Operation Atlanta, a military campaign conducted by the EU to help "deter, prevent and repress acts of piracy and armed robberies off the coast of Somalia," as noted by the official mission statement However, pirates are greatly facilitated by Somalia's position on the Horn of Africa which allows them to use its long coastline to stalk, chase and capture ships. The country has not had a functioning government since a dictatorship collapsed in 1991, while the international flotilla of warships patrolling the waters is struggling to prevent hijackings.