Piracy off the Somalian coast has fallen to its lowest levels since
2006, the International Maritime Bureau said Monday, but incidents on
the west coast of Africa have surged.
The IMB recorded eight piracy incidents in the Gulf of Aden
and Somalia in the first half of 2013, down from 57 incidents in the
same period during the previous year.
The IMB said efforts by international navies and privately
contracted security had caused piracy in the region to continue to
decline.
Cyrus Mody, the assistant director at the IMB, said pirates
off Africa's west coast are involved mostly in stealing oil. He said the
duration of the ship hijacking is extremely short and tends to be
violent.
"There has been a worrying trend in the kidnapping of crew
from vessels well outside the territorial limits of coastal states in
the Gulf of Guinea," said Pottengal Mukundan, director of the IMB.
Nigeria saw 22 piracy incidents of the Gulf of Guinea's 31 incidents in total.