Gulf of Aden most dangerous: IMB

Barely 48 hours after an oil tanker with an 18-member Indian crew was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off the Somalian coast...

Barely 48 hours after an oil tanker with an 18-member Indian crew was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off the Somalian coast, the International Maritime Bureau has declared the region as the most sensitive and dangerous waterway surpassing the otherwise notorious Nigerian stretch.

On Wednesday, the IMB piracy centre said the pirates held around 240 seafarers hostage and 12 merchant vessels were under their custody. Since midnight, two more vessels have been hijacked — while, a Kenyan ship, Great Creation, was hijacked on Wednesday, a Greek ship, Centauri, was captured off Mogadishu coast on Thursday.

In the wake of the rising incidents of maritime crime, if a ship decides to steer clear of the Gulf of Aden, the extra journey is expected to cost firms millions of ringgit, as vessels will have to pass the Cape of Good Hope. This experts say would add to 12 to 21 sailing days.

“We are more concerned with the response that the attacks are getting. Somalia has no infrastructure for law enforcement or any patrol across its coastline. The neighbouring states like Kenya and Yemen do not have any resources to take stock of the situation either,” Captain Pottengal Mukundan, Director, IMB, told The Indian Express over the phone from London.

All the attacks reported to the coalition navy and the IMB have so far seen pirates using mother ships — a vessel that carries a smaller vessel that operates independently from it — from Somalia for the attack. “They wait in the busy water lanes for the ship to come through the Gulf of Aden before they launch the speed crafts. The pirates then board the vessel armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers,” the Captain said.

In response to the rising incidents of ship hijacking, the United States Naval Central Command has created a designated maritime safe corridor termed Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA) in the Gulf. Navy warships and aircrafts will patrol the zone round the clock.