About Mahab Rahman

Piracy is perhaps is one of the biggest concerns for the freight industry, second to the fluctuations in crude oil prices. Liners have implemented many ways of protecting their vessels from pirates, from water cannons to armed guards onboard. Most recently, the killing of two Indian fishermen by Italian marines in international waters off the coast of Kerala has brought this very subject to everyone’s attention. The Italian mariners Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre (pictured below) were part of the cargo ship’s security team, and are currently being held by the Indian government in a government guest house, in Kochi, India, accused of mistaking the fishing boat for a pirate ship.

The unfortunate killing highlights the need for effective rules governing the use of armed guards on vessels. Examining the issue closely, one can easily recognize that the problem of piracy cannot be solved through onboard deterrence and policing actions by naval forces alone, but that an ongoing political solution in Somalia is essential. The stakes are becoming ever-higher in the struggle against maritime piracy. Although incidents in other reaches of the world such as the Gulf of Guinea are escalating, Somalia remains the focal point of global piracy incidents, just as the activities of the Somali pirates focus around what can be described as the world’s most important shipping lanes. According to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC), worldwide attacks in 2011 numbered 352, of which 199 (56%) took place around the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, up 57.9% from the 126 attacks in the same region in 2010. Of these attacks, only 24 (12%) were successful, down from 35 (27.8%) the previous year. So far in 2012 there have been 26 Somali incidents, with four hijackings, resulting in 64 hostages being taken. This takes the total number of hostages currently being held by Somali pirates to 177, and 12 vessels. [Read more...]