Eighteen Indians have been held hostage at the Somalian port of Eyl after the Hong Kong-owned Stolt Valor, coming from the Suez Canal and bound for Mumbai, was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on September 15. On Sunday, Greek freighter Captain Stephanos with 19 crew members on board was attacked by pirates off the Somalian coast — the 13th ship to fall into the hands of the Somalian pirates this year. The International Maritime Bureau reports 50 such attacks this year in or near the Gulf of Aden, considered one of the most dangerous stretches of waters in the world. Without an effective central administration since the 1991 civil war and plagued by factional fighting, Somalia located at the entrance of the Gulf of Aden continues to be a haven for pirates. Beyond the stereotypical notions of the bandana, the black patch, the skull-and-cross-bones flag, the peg leg, and the nagging parrot — nurtured by fiction and film — these fishermen are armed with automatic weapons and hand-held rocket launchers:

The strategy

According to a recent BBC report, off the Somalian coast, the hotspot of piracy attacks, only seven to 10 pirates, armed with heavy weapons and cruising in speed boats board the ship and make the initial attack. After the ships are captured, they are taken mostly to the port of Eyl. Once the vessel is seized, it has been reported, 50 pirates stay on board while 50 more wait on the shore to see that nothing goes amiss. At Eyl, the pirates treat their hostages well in expectation of a huge ransom amount. No hostages have been reported killed in Somali pirate hijackings. The crew of the hijacked ships is fed at special restaurants that have sprung up in the area. And though the country has not had a stable government in 17 years, plush houses and fancy cars dot the town. According to one estimate, money made by pirates from ransom payments was higher than the annual budget of Puntland last year. Lately, pirates have changed their tactics with heavily armed attackers operating simultaneously in the Gulf of Aden and on the eastern coast of Somalia, extending their range by operating from larger vessels. They use a mother ship as a mainstay of their attacks, from where they launch smaller boats to attack vessels.

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