Pirate attacks up across the board in 2007:
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Pirate attacks rose by 10 percent globally in 2007, the first increase in three years, as pirates stepped up attacks off the coasts of Nigeria and Somalia, an international maritime monitoring organization said Wednesday.
Last year, there were 269 attacks on ships, up from 239 in 2006 and reversing a downward trend that began in 2003, the International Maritime Bureau said in its annual report released by its piracy reporting center in Malaysia.
“The significant increase in the numbers can be directly attributed to the increase in the incidents in Nigeria and Somalia,” said Pottengal Mukundan, the bureau’s director, in a statement.
Attacks off the coast of Nigeria increased to 42, up from 12 cases in 2006, he said. Somalia reported 31 cases, up from 10 in 2006.
This gets back to a fundamental problem that is developing in third world areas- a complete breakdown in society, and a return to a “state of nature.” These attacks draw a sharp line between our orderly, prosperous, and on-line world and the violent, poor, darkened areas on the map. In our modern world, there is simply no place for piracy, yet it seems to be on the increase across the globe.
What we are seeing is a bizarre mix of old and new, as the third world urbanizes, and still struggles under age-old corrupt governments and economies, the people have cell phones, satellite TV, and RPGs. Pirates today seek the same as they did in their 1400-1700 heyday -loot, but they go about it using modern technology, and good old fashioned violence.
The logical next step is for the pirates to begin demanding tribute from merchant nations, in exchange for not attacking ships bearing their flag. Good thing we still have our Navy…
Joke below the fold:
Modern day pirates probably do not look like this. Be warned.
It does seem that the increase year-on-year is purely due to the increase in attacks off Nigeria and Somalia – which increase exceeds the total increase, suggesting a mild decrease in attacks elsewhere.
Piracy is a problem where nations lack the will, cohesion and power to eradicate it. Somalia is a nation in name only. Nigeria is close to being a failed state, and the rich traffic it harbours draws thieves like flies.
Elsewhere in the world piracy is largely limited to rich targets transiting developing countries in island archipelagos, such as the Malacca strait where it passes among Indonesian islands, or the Philippine Islands. Luxury yachts, liners, and freighters are all at risk where law enforcement is weak or absent, or where geography provides a secure base area.
I don’t see this as a “world going to hell” trend. More like an opportunity for engagement between developed countries – whose vessels and citizens are preferred targets – and developing countries willing to police their territorial waters. What’s needed in such cases is a small fleet of fast, well-armed boats with good comms, manned by well-vetted local forces trained and assisted by naval or coast guard advisors from countries like the US.
If Keira Knightley will be aboard, it’s definitely a pirate’s life for me!!!
Hey Bullnav, can we have a yardarm and a plank on a sub?
We’re not tough enough to stop it. Run freighters and tankers through with a platoon of Marines aboard. Capture and hang a few pirate crews and the rest will find safer lines of work.
MarkD · January 11, 2008 07:51 AM
That whole almost-certain-death thing is always a good deterent to piracy. Too bad our government has lost the will to use appropriate force like this when warranted.
Thieves are generally lazy, because if they weren’t they would have real jobs, and prey mostly on those they can easily intimidate or defeat. All we need to do is kill a few and the others will seek safet lines of work. But that just wouldn’t be politically correct.
Where is the Pirate Recruitment Office? Sign me up!
Pirates are by definition “Against All Flags.” They do not enjoy the protections of due process and the Geneva Conventions. One problem with the international left’s campaign against America’s locking up unlawful combatants in Gitmo is that it undermines the need for state actors to assume responsibility for the conduct of their nationals and the security of their territories. When possible pirates, ground, air or nautical, are captured they should be asked to identify their nationality. The country they claim can: 1) either accept responsibility for their acts by admitting to sponsorship (as in a Letter of Marque) in which case a state of war exists or 2) they can accept responsibility by endorsing and participating in punishment while offering compensation for the actions of their nationals or 3) deny responsibility and declare the actors were not acting under the flag of the claimed sovereign sponsor. If the last is true then the actors are indeed pirates and punishment should be swift.
I can think of few things in this world that would be more fun than turning on a Dillon Mini-gun or a Barrett 82A1 on a boat load of Somalian or Nigerian pirates. Operate like a shark, or a house cat. Attack, disable the pirate boat. Then spend the rest of the afternoon eating ham sandwiches, sunning myself, and occaisionally squeezing off a burst or two until their vessel sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Clean weapons. Reload. Take some photos. Hope for some more pirates the next day.