By Eric Huang     photo : @pixabay

Today, most pirate attacks occur in the Gulf of Guinea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.

The existence of pirates has a long history as maritime trade. Although the way that pirates snatch ships has changed a lot since mankind went to sea for the first time, the nature of pirates remains unchanged until today. Under normal circumstances, pirates try to board the attacked ship, steal money and valuables from the crew, or steal the cargo on the ship. In some cases, pirates hijacked ships and demanded a ransom. To carry out attacks, pirates use a variety of weapons-from guns to knives-to threaten and sometimes even kill crew members. Fortunately, in 2020, no crew was killed in a pirate attack, but 9 people were still injured in a pirate attack.

Pirates often operate in international waters, which poses a challenge for governments to effectively combat it. In addition to international laws that prohibit piracy and punish pirates, countries also deploy warships to patrol important maritime interceptions to protect merchant ships and use force to repel pirate ships when necessary.

Piracy is an international phenomenon and has nothing to do with any particular area. However, there are some factors that make piracy extremely rampant in certain parts of the world. In poor coastal areas, there are few economic opportunities, low literacy rates, weak local governments and a lack of a sense of the rule of law, coupled with easy access to weapons and close proximity to busy waterways, will lead to more piracy than in other areas. A typical example of such an area is Somalia, which was considered a hot spot for pirates by the international community between the 1990s and 2010s. It was not until the late 2010s when the international community led by the United Nations worked together to combat piracy in Somalia that the number of piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia declined sharply. 

Today, most pirate attacks occur in the Gulf of Guinea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. In the past five years, pirates carried out an average of 36 to 48 attacks on merchant ships in Nigerian waters each year. During the same period, there were 26 to 49 pirate attacks in Indonesian waters. Although some pirates make a living on their own, it is more common for some militant organizations and criminal groups to raise funds by piracy attack.

After the peak of the number of pirate attacks between 2010 and 2011, the number of actual successful and attempted pirate attacks worldwide in 2019 hit a record low. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, piracy activities increased again in 2020. The number of actual and attempted piracy attacks worldwide has increased by 20% compared to the previous year, from 162 piracy incidents in 2019 to 195 in 2020. It is understood that this may be because the epidemic has caused more people to lose employment opportunities and become pirates; governments are also busy fighting the epidemic and have no excess funds to combat piracy!

Prof Brandon Prins of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville said the fallout from the pandemic could see piracy increase. “My fear has always been that Covid-19 would reduce global trade, which lowers growth, increases poverty and joblessness and then leads to more sea piracy,” he told Global Risk Insight. ” There is certainly a concern that, with trade going down, there will be fewer sailors on board ships and therefore fewer crew monitoring for potential pirates or armed robbers.”

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