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KUALA LUMPUR : The number of seafarers killed by pirates surged last year, even though the overall incidence of armed robbery on the high seas fell, an international watchdog said in its annual report out Monday.
Thirty mariners were killed in attacks, mainly in Nigeria and in the busy Malacca Strait separating Indonesia from Malaysia, the Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau said.
The figure represented a significant rise on 2003, when 21 seafarers were killed.
Nigeria had the most deadly waters, with 15 seafarers killed while four people were killed in the Malacca Strait, the Malaysian-based centre said.
Worldwide actual or attempted piracy attacks declined to 325 from 445 in 2003, but violence against seafarers "continues and remains at high levels," the report said.
"Although the decline in the number of attacks is to be welcomed, there is concern that in some key hot spots the situation has deteriorated," said Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau.
The centre said hijackings of tugs and barges and kidnapping of crews continued to increase in Indonesian waters, in the northern Malacca Strait and off North Sumatra.
Since late 2003, there has been a steady increase in attacks and kidnappings in the piracy-prone Strait and along the coast of Aceh, an Indonesian province troubled by separatist violence.
"In the past, these attacks were believed to be solely the work of Aceh rebels, though there are now indications that crime syndicates are launching these attacks from fishing boats," it said.
But pirate attacks had halted since the tsunami that devastated the region in December, it said.
"This is probably because some of the pirates may have died during the tsunami. It is certainly the case that many would have lost equipment such as boats and weapons," it said.
Pirates continued to target bulk carriers, chemical tankers, cargo ships and crude oil tankers and most of the attacks happened when the ships were either anchored or steaming, it said.
Overall, Indonesia accounted for the highest number of attacks or attempted attacks with 93 incidents and 37 more occurred in the Malacca Strait.
The narrow waterway is used by some 50,000 ships a year carrying a third of world trade and half its oil supplies.
The centre said the 23 percent fall from 121 incidents in 2003 in Indonesia was a welcome drop but "it still accounts for more than one quarter of the worldwide incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships".
Through the year, 86 crewmembers were kidnapped, mostly in the Malacca Strait and Bangladesh, the report said.
The report said Lagos, Nigeria was the single most dangerous port with 19 attacks and that despite overall incidents in the country falling to 28 from 39 in 2003, it "is regarded as the most dangerous area in Africa for piracy and armed robbery."
Asia's most dangerous port was Tanjung Priok in Indonesia with 17 attacks, followed by Balikpapan, a major oil port also in Indonesia that saw 13 attacks.
The centre said there was a drop in the number of attacks in the Philippines, Vietnam and Bangladesh. - AFP
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