By William Davison
Somalia’s new government, greater naval cooperation and more armed security aboard ships has cut piracy to the point that pirates have had no successful hijacks this year, according to a group formed to stop the attacks.
Somali pirates tried and failed to seize two ships in the Gulf of Aden in 2013, after incidents fell almost fourfold to 36 last year versus 2011, said James Hughes, co-chairman of the Contact Group on Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia.
“The international community needs to continue with its efforts to ensure sufficient force generation,” he said today in an interview in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. The joint operation of around 20 ships drawn from navies from the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia and China and others, is an “unprecedented level” of multilateral cooperation, Hughes said.
The cost of piracy off Somalia in 2011 was estimated at $6.9 billion, including $1.3 billion spent on military operations and $1.2 billion on armed guards and vessel security, according to a report in February last year by One Earth Future Foundation.
To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa atwdavison3@bloomberg.net
Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/
