Somali pirates are back with a vengeance. After seasonal monsoon weather kept the modern day buccaneers onshore for a few weeks, they have resumed their attacks on vessels plying the Gulf of Aden.
A total of 306 piracy incidents worldwide were reported to the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) in the first nine months of 2009, compared to 293 for the whole of 2008. The report also revealed that the total number of incidents in which guns were used had risen by more than 200%, compared to the corresponding period in 2008.
Somali cost responsible for rise
The increase in attacks is directly attributed to heightened piracy activity off the Somali Coast, where 47 incidents were reported compared to just 12 for the same period of the previous year, and in the Gulf of Aden, which had 100 incidents compared to 51 for the same period of the previous year.
Among the latest victims of Somali pirates are a British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, aged 59 and 55, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, who were taken hostage by gunmen in the Indian Ocean in the early hours of 23 October.
They had been travelling to Tanzania from the Seychelles and their yacht was later found in international waters. Somali pirates boarded the couple's yacht, the Lynn Rival while they slept. The pirates forced the pair to sail towards Somalia after their boat was captured.
The couple were being held on a Singapore-registered container ship called the Kota Wajah which was seized by the pirates earlier in October.
Pirates have extended their reach
Global piracy statistics reveal that in the first nine months of 2009, 114 vessels were boarded, 34 vessels hijacked and 88 vessels fired upon. A total of 661 crewmembers were taken hostage, 12 kidnapped, six killed and eight reported missing.
The IMB third quarter report shows that Somali pirates have extended their reach, threatening not only the Gulf of Aden and East Coast of Somalia but also the southern region of the Red Sea, the Bab el Mandab Straits and the East Coast of Oman. The area is a piracy hotspot, with a total of 168 incidents reported in the first three quarters of 2009, accounting for more than half of the overall number of reported attacks.
Ship owners should review their cover
Clive Stoddart, head of the kidnap and ransom team at Lloyd’s broker Aon, advises ship owners to review their insurance cover if transiting the Gulf of Aden or parts of the Indian Ocean, in light of the recent spike in pirate attacks. Stoddart says that even though the Gulf of Aden is now relatively well protected by naval vessels, the Somali Basin is a vast and relatively unprotected body of water.
“Traditional marine insurance policies do not always cover piracy so ship owners should consider specialist marine kidnap and ransom policies,” he told lloyds.com. “These provide guaranteed access to advice at the time of an incident in addition to reimbursement of the ransom, cost of delivery of ransom and legal costs that may occur during a period of illegal seizure.”
The so-called marine insurance General Average process, whereby unforeseen costs such as those associated with resolving a kidnap and ransom case are apportioned among different parties in a voyage, can take months - and still leave vessel owners out of pocket.
“We know that consultants who might advise companies on incidents charge around USD3,000 per day. Legal expenses associated with ransom payments and the cost of delivery of ransom can run into six figures,” Stoddart explains. “This is on top of paying out a ransom.
A leader in providing specialist kidnap & ransom cover, Lloyd’s has adequate capacity for these risks. Stoddart says: “The cover is designed to put a shipping business targeted by pirates back into the financial position it was in before the attack.”
