The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations shipping agency says piracy costs the global economy an estimated $7 billion to $12 billion a year, Daily Independent reports.
According to the IMO, attacks on ships by Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, an area as large as Europe rose to a record in the first half of 2011.
Its figures show that pirates attacked 187 vessels and hijacked 22 in the period.
IMO also said that fighting in Libya between rebels and national leader Muammar Qaddafi is diverting naval ships from anti-piracy patrols.
IMO Secretary-General, Efthimios Mitropoulos said at a conference in London that, “One has to be pragmatic and realistic and accept and understand that ships that might be made available to support counter-piracy will be deployed to address the Libyan crisis.”
Mitropoulos said the timing of his request to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in February for more ships was “unfortunate” in coinciding with the eruption of political unrest in the Middle East and northern Africa.
“I have not been informed of any increase in the number of ships made available off Somalia” since then, the IMO chief said.
Operation commander, European Union Naval Force Somalia, Major General Buster Howes, said at a U.K. parliamentary hearing on June 22, that three naval coalitions of NATO, the European Union and the U.S.-led Combined Maritime Force had between 10 and 16 vessels in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden to cover 2.6 million square miles.
He said that some 23,000 ships and $1 trillion worth of trade transit the gulf annually.
According to the IMO, attacks on ships by Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, an area as large as Europe rose to a record in the first half of 2011.
Its figures show that pirates attacked 187 vessels and hijacked 22 in the period.
IMO also said that fighting in Libya between rebels and national leader Muammar Qaddafi is diverting naval ships from anti-piracy patrols.
IMO Secretary-General, Efthimios Mitropoulos said at a conference in London that, “One has to be pragmatic and realistic and accept and understand that ships that might be made available to support counter-piracy will be deployed to address the Libyan crisis.”
Mitropoulos said the timing of his request to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in February for more ships was “unfortunate” in coinciding with the eruption of political unrest in the Middle East and northern Africa.
“I have not been informed of any increase in the number of ships made available off Somalia” since then, the IMO chief said.
Operation commander, European Union Naval Force Somalia, Major General Buster Howes, said at a U.K. parliamentary hearing on June 22, that three naval coalitions of NATO, the European Union and the U.S.-led Combined Maritime Force had between 10 and 16 vessels in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden to cover 2.6 million square miles.
He said that some 23,000 ships and $1 trillion worth of trade transit the gulf annually.