Industry Marketing News

406 piracy attacks in 2009

    A total of 406 incidents of piracy and armed robbery were reported in 2009, the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur confirms. In 2008, 293 attacks were reported. The last time piracy figures exeeded 400 incidents was in 2003.
   In 2009, 153 vessels were boarded, 49 vessels were hijacked, there were 84 attempted attacks and 120 vessels were fired upon. A total of 1,052 crew members were taken hostage. 68 crew members were injured in the various incidents and eight were killed. Somalia is still the “worst” country on the list. The total number of incidents attributed to the Somali pirates stands at 217 with 47 vessels hijacked and 867 crew members taken hostage. 2009 has, however, seen a significant shift in the area of attacks off Somalia. While the attacks in 2008 predominantly focused on the Gulf of Aden, 2009 witnessed more vessels also being targeted along the east coast of Somalia and the Indian Ocean.
   28 incidents were reported for Nigeria in 2009. The majority of these incidents were related to the oil industry.