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.