Friday, February 20, 2009
Piracy scourge spreading across Africa
London: The BBC has been given footage of a pirate attack off the coast of Africa. But unlike other high-profile attacks off Somalia this one was off the West Coast where there are few coalition warships on patrol.
The International Maritime Bureau says it knows of more than 100 pirate attacks on shipping off West Africa last year but most of them were not reported. To view the footage click here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7900437.stm
Seperately, the RIA-Novosti news agency quotes Somalia's ambassador to Russia as saying the new Somali government aims to create a maritime corridor to foil piracy off the country's coast.
The agency quotes Ambassador Mohammed Mahmud Handule as saying the idea is to gather about half a dozen ships at a time to be escorted through the pirate-infested waters.
He says the escorts would be provided by "our friends, including Russia," RIA-Novosti reported Thursday.
Russia sent a frigate to the region this winter after the seizure of a Ukrainian freighter with Russians among the crew. [20/02/09]
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