Pirates’ ransoms top R570m in a year

Somali pirates reaped an estimated R570 million in ransoms last year, and ships are increasingly using high-speed transits and armed guards to prevent seizures. According to shipping officials, pirates have also increased their brutality towards hostages in the past six months in an effort to pressure shipowners to settle faster and for higher amounts. The rising concerns brought together government and industry professionals at a high-profile anti-piracy conference in Dubai last week. “Shipowners clearly see maritime piracy as the number one challenge and concern,” said Peter Swift, the chairman of the steering group of the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme. The scourge of piracy, facilitated by the absence of a functioning central government in Somalia since 1991, has cost the global economy. According to Mohammed Adbulahi Omar Asharq, the foreign minister of the transitional federal government of Somalia, the average ransom is R27m, and ransoms of as much as R64m have been reported. Armed guards are being used on some ships transiting the high-risk Gulf of Aden, which is used by 30 000 cargo vessels each year. Attacks have even been recorded 1 500 kilometres off the coast of Somalia.