Pre-emptive strikes by naval forces, the deployment of private armed guards and protective measures by ships helped to almost halve the number of successful hijackings by Somali pirates last year, the International Maritime Bureau said Thursday.

The group, which monitors piracy worldwide, said that Somali pirates continued to account for more than half the total number of attacks worldwide.

The number of Somali pirate attacks increased to 237 last year from 219 in 2010, but the number of successful hijackings fell to 28 vessels from 49 in 2010, the bureau said. Despite the successes, international naval forces have limited resources and vast distances to patrol in the Indian Ocean, and pirates are still making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, the group said.

Source: Reuters

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