The number of attacks by pirates
worldwide has fallen in the last year but armed robbery and kidnappings at sea
have surged off the coast of west Africa, a maritime body said.
Pottengal Mukundan, director of the
International Maritime Bureau (IMB), urged west and central African leaders to
act on an agreement reached last month to tackle the problem.
“This (code of conduct) should be
translated soon into action on the water. If these attacks are left unchecked,
they will become more frequent, bolder and more violent,’’ he said.
“Cooperation and capacity-building
among the coastal states in this region is the way forward and urgently needed
to make these waters safe for seafarers and vessels.’’
In the first six months of this
year, the London-based IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre recorded 138 incidents
worldwide, compared to 177 in the same period in 2012.
Hijackings fell from 20 to seven so
far in 2013, while the number of sailors taken hostage fell from 334 to 127,
the quarterly report said.
Attacks off the coast of Somalia
have dropped “significantly’’ in the first half of 2013, largely due to
increased military action, the IMB’s report said.
But it warned of increased pirate
activity in the Gulf of Guinea, recording 31 incidents in the region – 22 of
which took place off the coast of Nigeria.
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