The UAE has brought the issue centre-stage by announcing it would host the second summit against piracy on June 27 and 28 in a bid to get to the root of the problem - Khaleej Times.
Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Jarman, Permanent Representative of the UAE to the United Nations made the announcement at the 11th Plenary Meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia in New York.
Coalition navies from Nato, the EU, the Combined Maritime Forces as well as individual navies like China, Russia, India and South Korea have contained pirate operations to a large extent, but the phenomenon has spread to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. This has again raised fears at a time when tensions with Iran and the Eurozone economic crisis refuses to go away.
Al Jarman said the UAE is ‘‘still deeply concerned’’ about the attacks on shipping vessels and the losses borne by the industry.
It is geo-strategic worry and the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks pirate incidents 24/7 said pirate operations could affect energy and cargo routes in the region. ‘‘This year there have been four attacks in the Gulf of Oman and its approaches which affects the energy and other cargo routes into and out of the Arabian Gulf. There are no attacks inside the Arabian Gulf close to the UAE coast there,’’ said Captain P. Mukundan of the Bureau when asked if the Arabian Gulf is at risk. Read full article HERE.
Anti-piracy efforts by the Dutch military in the Gulf of Aden have received a boost due to an agreement allowing the Netherlands to store small arms and ammunition here with the Singapore Armed Forces - LexisNexis.
The arms will be used by Dutch military teams who sail on board Dutch-flagged merchant vessels, which pass through the piracy-infested waters off the Somali Coast and the Gulf of Aden. These military teams - known as vessel protection detachments (VPD) - are deployed on board the most vulnerable vessels, said a Dutch Defence Ministry spokesman last week.
The move comes in the wake of measures by governments and private navies to curb hijacking and hostage taking, as well as upgrade security practices by vessels passing through the area.
The Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden has been an ongoing red alert area for hijackings and hostage taking.
According to the London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB), seven of the nine hijackings worldwide that occurred this year up to March 19, took place in Somalia. Somali pirates currently hold 13 vessels and 197 hostages, said its website, and last year they accounted for more than half of the attacks worldwide.
'The overall figures for Somali piracy could have been much higher if it were not for the continued efforts of international naval forces,' said the IMB's annual report for last year.
London-based IMB director Captain P. Mukundan underscored the importance of the military teams onboard Dutch vessels, pointing out they are not meant to protect ships against armed robbery but to specially prevent hijackings and hostage taking by Somali pirates.
He told The Straits Times that France and Italy have also deployed VPDs to help protect their merchant vessels that pass through the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden.
The Dutch Defence Ministry spokesman said in an e-mail response that about 250 merchant vessels pass through the area every year and the Dutch military will be able to deploy about 50 VPDs this year to protect the most vulnerable of the Dutch-flagged ships. Read more.
The pirates' gunfire and the explosion of a rocket-propelled grenade were so loud Cdr James Cohen could hear them through the phone of the colleague next to him, writes The National.
The attack failed, but not before the men recorded it on a detailed chart of hijacking attempts and other suspicious activity at sea.
It was all in a day's work for the 12 staff who run the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), an emergency call centre in Dubai for ships crossing the waters from Somalia to India, where pirates stalk.
An estimated 2,000 ships cross that stretch each day.
The team fields as many as 50 phone calls and 3,000 emails a day in an office lined with computer screens at the British consulate.
Most of their correspondence involves routine check-ins or false alarms, but they also provide a detailed report for three multinational counter-piracy forces that help them to analyse risks and position warships.
At most, 25 warships are patrolling 2.6 million square miles of sea so any added information is helpful.
"We use all the info we get from UKMTO and all our other maritime partners to decide where to place our ships," says Cdr Jacqueline Sherriff, a spokeswoman for EU Navfor, one of the three forces.
"The most important thing is information-sharing to make sure you have the best picture possible of the shipping area."
The two other multinational forces are led by Nato and the US. China, India, Japan and South Korea, which have their own counter-piracy operations, can request specific information from UKMTO.
Dozens of warships are logged on to the system at any time, says Cdr Cohen, the UKMTO officer in charge. "Everyone uses it."
He points to acronyms on a screen representing various frigates.
On another computer screen Cdr Cohen shows a map of the Gulf of Aden, crowded with dots and names of ships.
The UKMTO has increased its efforts in recent years as the threat of piracy increased, although this was not its original mandate.
It was set up with two staff in the region a few weeks after the September 11 attacks to reassure commercial vessels that they could continue global trade.
"The purpose of the UKMTO ultimately is to improve the confidence of everyone in the shipping industry," Cdr Cohen said. "Piracy is an adjunct to that because it's all part and parcel of the same problem."
The two staff worked out of a hotel. In 2007 they added a third team member, then another two in the Second Gulf War. They moved into their own office in 2010.
The team still advises ships on matters not related to piracy. They fielded two dozen calls a day when Iran threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the year.
They also offer guidance on accidents such as fires and injuries.
Each day they begin to produce their main brief at 4am and send it to navies at 6.30am. They update their map four times a day.
At 11am they receive email updates from about three-quarters of the ships crossing the high-risk waters, and spend the rest of the day processing them.
They have learnt that most attempted hijackings occur by 1pm.
The ship that called while under attack last month, one of the largest container vessels in the world, faced little threat of being boarded by pirates.
But it provided data that helped to build a fuller picture of the threat.
"The phone rang and I could hear gunfire in the background," says watchkeeper Terry Allen, an able seaman in the British navy.
"I got all the details and put them up."
The recent proposal to take military action against the notorious Somali pirates and initiate legal proceedings against them on land in Somalia must be welcomed as an important step towards neutralising the grave threat that these sea brigands pose to the international community - Daily Pioneer.
Full-scale military action against the pirates under the UN mandate has long been favoured by many countries, including India. However, given the legal, political and diplomatic complications that could potentially arise out of such an international armed intervention, African nations have in the past been especially reluctant to give their consent. But, with their own economies now being affected by sea piracy, African countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia have proposed a multi-pronged offensive against the terrorists. This includes supporting a UN-led international military effort against the terrorists on sea, hunting them down on land and prosecuting them in court. The details of this operation will be further discussed at the annual conference of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium in Cape Town, South Africa that starts on April 10. A 32-member group, IONS includes the littoral states of the Indian Ocean region and seeks to increase maritime co-operation among the Navies of these countries. If, at the Cape Town conference, the Navy Chiefs of all the 32 member states are able to agree upon a concrete anti-piracy plan of action, it would be a huge step forward. Read more.
The Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in close co operation with UKMTO have translated Best Management Practices 4 into Chinese - UK P&I Club.
This essential guide, now in Chinese, designed to assist ships to avoid, deter or delay piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia, including the Gulf of Aden (GoA) and the Arabian Sea area.
Experience, supported by data collected by Naval forces, shows that the application of the recommendations contained within this booklet can and will make a significant difference in preventing a ship becoming a victim of piracy.
South African Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has confirmed that the country will increase its naval budget - Engineering News (SA).
Answering a question from Engineering News Online at a press conference at the 2012 Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) in Cape Town on Wednesday, Sisulu stated that the amount would be announced in her department’s budget.
“When we adopted the [Southern African Development Community (SADC)] Maritime Security Strategy, we committed ourselves to giving more money to the navy. This is a top priority for us.”
SADC heads of State adopted the SADC Maritime Security Strategy in Angola on August 9, 2011.
This comes against the backdrop of growing SADC concern about piracy and other forms of maritime crime and insecurity.
In her keynote address opening the conference, Sisulu pointed out that African countries were "particularly reliant on the sea and thereby vulnerable".
She highlighted that, in 2006, the global total of people taken hostage at sea was 186, but that in 2010 the figure for the Indian Ocean alone was 1 016.
She affirmed that SADC was expecting increased pirate operations off its east coast.
During the 12 months from March 2011 to the end of February 2012, there were 57 pirate attacks in Tanzanian territorial waters, reported Sisulu, citing her Tanzanian counterpart. This was "an unprecedented number, but one that is indicative of the relocation of piracy to the SADC ocean". Read more.
So, you hear about another merchant ship being hijacked by pirates, and you shrug and think there is no reason for you to worry since you are far removed — geographically? Here’s the clincher: one single act of hijack mid-sea sets off a domino effect, which touches upon even your day-to-day life - DNA India.
Although just one incident of attack by pirates has been reported in the Arabian Sea since July last year, several foreign merchant vessels, fearing a similar encounter, move along the Indian coastline — a little too close for comfort. Maritime security forces are up on their toes, as it raises the risk of anti-national elements gaining easy access to Indian territory.
Inspector-General SPS Basra, commander, coast guard (west zone), assured at a recent seminar on Safer Maritime Navigation on Indian Coast, “We are vigilant and we have the utmost commitment towards the safety of Indian waters.”
To show that they mean business, the Indian navy and the coast guard nabbed around 110 Somali pirates in at least four combined operations last year. Read more.
Somali pirates have acquired sophisticated weaponry, including mines and shoulder-held missile launchers from Libya, and are likely to use them in bolder attacks on shipping, a senior maritime security analyst said on Thursday - Reuters.
"We found that Libyan weapons are being sold in what is the world's biggest black market for illegal gun smugglers, and Somali pirates are among those buying from sellers in Sierra Leone, Liberia and other countries," said Judith van der Merwe, of the Algiers-based African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism.
"We believe our information is credible and know that some of the pirates have acquired ship mines, as well as Stinger and other shoulder-held missile launchers," Van der Merwe told Reuters on the sidelines of an Indian Ocean naval conference.
After Libya's ruler Muammar Gaddafi was killed by rebels in the north African state, weaponry from his well-stocked arsenals made its way onto the black market, she said.
The information was gathered from interviews with gun smugglers, pirates and other sources, said Van der Merwe. Read more.
Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari underscored on Thursday that piracy problem in the Indian Ocean can merely be solved through regional consensus, reports FARS News Agency.
Sayyari is in South Africa visit to attend the 3rd Indian Ocean Naval Symposium being held in the Cape Town International Convention Center over the period of April 10 to 13, 2012.
Referring to the Symposium, the Navy commander said it aims at reviewing ways to fight pirates.
He termed the pirate measures as the sea terrorism which is a serious threat to the international marine trade.
A senior Iranian Navy commander raised the possibility of politically-tainted support for piracy in the region.
Somali pirates are poor and simple people without any expertise and there might be sort of support behind their activities, Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Qolam Reza Khadem Biqam told reporters on Saturday.
He added that acting as a pirate needs special knowledge and expertise and pirates' activities are impossible without guidance, support and logistics. Read more.
With the Indian Ocean region infested by Somali pirates, India is spearheading an effort to create a naval standard operating procedure (SOP) for the 32 littoral nations of the region to jointly fight the menace, writes NDTV.
The effort at preparing the SOP is currently in progress at the India-initiated Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) taking place in South Africa, according to the Indian Navy.
IONS came into being in February 2008 when India invited the navy chiefs of the 32 littoral nations, including Pakistan, for the first session of the initiative in New Delhi.
The 2012 edition of IONS is chaired by the South African Navy Chief. Indian Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma is in Cape Town to attend the meet.
The IONS meet was declared open by South African Minister for Defence and Military Veterans Lindiwe Sisulu on Wednesday.
The proposal for a common SOP for all Indian Ocean region's navies was made by Verma while addressing the IONS on Thursday and the issue was discussed by the navy chiefs from the region on Friday, an Indian Navy official said. Read more.
BIMCO is holding a webinar session on “Protection against Pirates”.The online briefing will take place on 27 April 2012 from 11:00 to 12:30 GMT. The webinar takes the audience through the fundamentals of company and ship preparations and execution of operations in the High Risk Area - Shiptalk.
Chaired by BIMCO Maritime Security Officer Cdr. Jakob P. Larsen, the Webinar will discuss the implications of shipping operations inside the High Risk Area.