Seoul - The global incidence of piracy surged 36% on-year in the first half of the year due mainly to more attacks carried out by Somali pirates, South Korea's government said Thursday.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a report by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs as saying that piracy attacks numbered 266 in the January - March period, with 163 involving attacks made by Somali pirates, up 63% from a year earlier.
A total of 29 ships were hijacked, with 495 sailors taken captive in the six-month period, with injuries and deaths caused by the attacks rising to 46 people from 17 a year earlier, the report showed.
Despite the spike in attacks by Somali pirates, the actual number of vessels being hijacked off the eastern coast of Africa fell to 13% of all ships captured, compared with 27% a year earlier.
The organization, under the International Chamber of Commerce, attributed the fall to better precautions being taken by ships sailing in the Indian Ocean near Somalia, and the presence of the international naval force in the region to protect commercial shipping.
Besides piracy near Somalia, the IMB reported 50 attacks by outlaws operating near Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore that resulted in three ships being hijacked.
Early this week, South Africa's Defence and Military Veterans Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, called for countries in the Southern African Development Community to put in place robust laws to effectively prosecute pirates.
Sisulu said over the past five years, there have been around 1 600 acts of piracy, which have caused "immeasurable harm."
"As regions are increasingly regarded as threatened by piracy, unstable, or volatile, entire trading routes are altered, insurance premiums increase, cargo shippers use alternative ports to pick up and deliver their goods," Sisulu said.
