Southeast Asia: The new piracy capital

Southeast Asia has recently regained the reputation as the world’s worst region for piracy. With one third of world shipping going through the regions’ waters, the costs to trade and shipping are likely to be extensive.   

According to a recent report from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and International Maritime Bureau (IMB), since the start of 2015, Southeast Asia has accounted for 55 per cent of the world’s 54 piracy and armed robbery incidents. According to these statistics, Southeast Asia has regained the reputation as the region in the world most afflicted by piracy.

Transfer Denied: The Hidden Costs of Washington’s War Against al-Shabab

As a child, Noor Dubow fled war in his homeland of Somalia. Growing up, he fought constantly against hunger while living in a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya. Today, he wears a tie to work, goes to school at night, and lives in a tightknit Somali community in America’s heartland. But Dubow, 29, still struggles with fear — not for himself, but for relatives left behind who are about to be cut off from his financial lifeline.

Since moving to Columbus five years ago, Dubow regularly has sent money to his family through an ever-dwindling number of banks willing to wire funds to private financial firms in Somalia. The last major bank in the United States to do so abruptly stopped this month, worried about prosecution or other liabilities should the money be seized by militants who are ravaging the East African country.

Emerging Oil Venues Attracting Pirates

The recent hijacking of a ship off the coast of emerging oil darling Angola, and the apparent heist of $8 million in fuel, helps us trace how piracy on the high seas has shifted geographically and how it changes and adapts to new security efforts.

Civil war-torn and anarchic Somalia used to steal all the piracy headlines—not so anymore. Pirates were pushed off the Somali coast, and along with some other ingenious adaptations to their modus operandi, they moved with the geographical—and increasingly geological—times. Where the oilmen go, the pirates will follow.

The Expensive, Diminishing Threat of Somali Piracy

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has dropped off dramatically in 2012. Successful ship hijackings have decreased from 31 in 2011 (and 49 in 2010) to only four so far in 2012. Attacks against ships have also decreased, falling from 199 reported attacks in the first nine months of 2011 to 70 attacks over the same span in 2012 -- a 65 percent drop. However, diminished activity does not necessarily mean a decrease in the cost of sailing around the Horn of Africa. Somali pirates occupy a unique position, which is right along highly strategic global shipping lanes yet outside the reach of any national power. For international actors, it is politically and militarily easier to try to contain the Somali piracy threat than to eliminate it. But containment comes at a high cost.

Greek-operated tanker hijacked off Togo

Pirates have attacked and hijacked a Greek-operated oil tanker off the coast of Togo, in the latest in a spate of attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Guinea. The vessel has 24 Russian crewmembers on board.

According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the vessel, the Energy Centurion, was attacked by armed pirates on Tuesday, 17 miles off the coast of the Togolese capital Lome, where it had been reportedly anchored.

Togolese forces, which learned of the attack at around 2 a.m. (0200 GMT) following a distress signal, engaged the pirates and fired at them but they escaped and the tanker disappeared from sight, officials said. 

"Our patrol vessels went out to help the tanker and there was a gunfire between our forces and the pirates," said Colonel Inoussa Djibril, spokesman for the Togolese army chief of staff.

An official for ship operator Golden Energy Management in Athens said the attack had appeared to be an attempt to steal the 56,000 tonnes of gasoil on board rather than a kidnapping. "It's not piracy, it's robbery," the official told Reuters.