Somali pirates have the capability of reaching Malaysian waters using the bigger and better equipped vessels which they have hijacked.
That’s the forecast of International Maritime Bureau (IMB) piracy reporting centre head of Asian region, Noel Choong, who said Somali pirates were using the vessels which they had hijacked to go further from their base.
He said the pirates were now attacking ships in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of India and Maldives.
Somali pirates have the capability of reaching Malaysian waters using the bigger and better equipped vessels which they have hijacked.
That’s the forecast of International Maritime Bureau (IMB) piracy reporting centre head of Asian region, Noel Choong, who said Somali pirates were using the vessels which they had hijacked to go further from their base.
He said the pirates were now attacking ships in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of India and Maldives.
“If they move further, they will reach Sri Lanka and eventually the Straits of Malacca. Two years ago, nobody would have predicted that they would reach India. It is hard to believe they would reach the Straits of Malacca, but it is possible,” he said.
According to Choong, many of the pirates converted the hijacked ships into motherships that could be used to launch attacks against other vessels. He said IMB’s initial advice to ships was to keep clear of all small boats.
“But now, with (the use of) hijacked ships, unsuspecting ships may think it is a merchant ship. The advice is to monitor merchant ships which are lowering skiffs into the sea,” he warned. – Shiptalk
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