Piracy at Sea—Somali Pirates

A Ukrainian cargo ship seized over a month ago off the coast of Somalia has been freed.^[1] The roving band of pirates, whom we have covered most recently here, captured the Panahia, a cargo vessel with 22 crew members, on October 18.^[2] It is unclear whether the $700,000 ransom demanded by the pirates was paid, but Ukrainian officials in Kiev said that the shipping company that operated the vessel had been ready to pay it.^[3]

While the Somali pirates have garnered the most amount of attention in recent months, piracy is actually rampant across the globe, though it is down from previous years. In the first 9 months of 2005, there were 205 pirate attacks reported globally, compared to 251 in the same period of 2004.^[4] The coastal waters between Indonesia and Australia have seen 61 pirate attacks this year, while the Malacca Straits—which is between Malaysia and Indonesia—have seen 10.^[5] Furthermore, there have been reports of attacks on ships near the Basra, Iraq, oil terminal, and on ships around the Bonny River in Nigeria.^[6] There were ten attacks off the coasts of South America, and a number off of Africa's coasts.^[7]

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[1] Pirates Free Ukrainian Ship; Crew Safe, Associated Press, Nov. 27, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] International Chamber of Commerce [hereinafter ICC], ICC Appeals for Naval Protection Against Pirates, ICC Commercial Crime Services [hereinafter ICC CCS], Nov. 7, 2005, available here.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] ICC, Piracy and Armed Robbery 1 January – 30 September 2005, ICC CCS, last visited Nov. 28, 2005, available here; see also ICC, Weekly Piracy Report, ICC CCS, Nov. 15-22, 2005, available here.