Piracy-Nigeria, Indonesia others rank high.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) report has ranked Lagos Nigeria as one of the pirate prone areas in the world, despite a fall in the attack in  global piracy in seven year.

The  development  may lead to an  increase in freight rate of Nigerian bound cargoes.

Other countries prone to pirate attacks includes Indonesia, Malaysia India, Togo, Egypt and Bangladesh as at September 2013.

According to the report, “Pirates/robbers are often well armed, violent and have attacked, hijacked and robbed vessels/kidnapped crews along the coast, rivers, anchorages, ports and surrounding waters. Attacks reported up to 170 nautical miles from coast. In many incidents, pirates have hijacked and ransacked vessels and stolen cargo-usually gas oil. A number of crew members have also been injured and kidnapped. Generally all waters in Nigeria remain risky.”

The report noted that there surge in the pirate atttack in the Gulf of Guinea, which has replaced Somalia as the world’s piracy hotspot with more than 40 attacks, seven hijackings and 132 crew taken hostage in the first nine months of the year 2013.

The Gulf of Guinea accounted for all crew kidnappings worldwide, 32 of them off Nigeria, and two off Togo.

Nigeria accounted for 29 incidents, up from 21 a year ago. Two ships were hijacked, 11 boarded and 13 fired on.

The IMB report also said Indonesia accounts for the most number of incidents with 68 reports however that such incidents were “low level attacks aimed at thefts against the vessels and should not be compared to the more serious, violent attacks in the Gulf of Guinea and off Somalia.”

The director of the international maritime bureau (IMB) warned in 2012 that the region was now a major focal point for armed robberies at sea,

“Piracy in west Africa is a serious problem,” said Pottengal Mukundan, IMB director. “Pirates are getting quite audacious, with increasing levels of violence being used.”

Mukundan also criticised the lack of efforts by governments in the region to tackle the problem.

Vanguard.