Somali pirates hijacking merchant ships in the Indian Ocean frequently take more foreigners hostage in a single month than all other kidnappers in the world combined, information from a kidnap and ransom report reveals.
According to risk consultancy AKE, kidnap and ransom trends are in constant flux, and while the hostage-taking of foreigners in Colombia and Iraq is in decline, Somali piracy and the accompanying ransom demands is on the rise.
Piracy accounts for the kidnapping of approximately 95 foreigners per month, and with the average settlement estimated to be between £2.5-£3 million, shippers now warn that vessels may be forced to take a longer, more costly route around Africa.
Considering piracy is by no means a new crime, just why has it risen to such prominence in the last decade?
John Drake, a senior risk consultant for AKE Ltd, said: "Simply put, you will get piracy in areas where shipping passes by coastal communities with high levels of criminality.
"Never before have those conditions been so exaggerated as in Somalia. The government collapsed in 1991, levels of lawlessness are endemic, and the increasingly globalised world has seen a steady rise in the number of shipped goods passing through the Gulf of Aden between Europe and Asia.
"On a historical level you could possibly even compare it to an impoverished Cornwall or lawless Caribbean at a time when there were strong shipping routes between the Americas and Europe."
Second on the global hostage-taking risk list, with an average of 20 kidnaps per month is Mexico, although so far Western nationals have not tended to be targeted.
Representing a downward trend are kidnappings further south in Colombia, due to disarray amongst militant groups and better coordination by security forces.
Neighbouring countries however, namely El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, have all seen an increase.
Foreigners kidnapped and released alive can wait up to 300 days for release in Afghanistan, although a high proportion of the one or two monthly kidnappings result in violent death, either through execution or during special forces rescue missions. Ransoms are usually between £200,000-£600,000.
In the aftermath of the 2003 US-led Iraq invasion, kidnappings of both foreigners and local Iraqis soared but have since fallen sharply. Yemen is now seen as the Middle Eastern country in which foreigners are most at risk of kidnap.
Current hot spots in Africa include Nigeria and Sudan's Darfur region. Ransoms for the one or two foreign nationals kidnapped per month in the Niger Delta by militants and armed gangs range from £23,000-£180,000, with the longest period spent in captivity standing at 465 days.
Charity workers, United Nations staff and African Union peacekeepers have all been targeted in the Darfur region, where the average time spent in captivity is 100 days.
Within Europe, the former Soviet Union is seen as having the highest risk of kidnap for foreigners. Short duration "tiger kidnaps" are, however, becoming increasingly common in Western Europe due to the economic crisis, particularly in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
Despite the worrying statistics, AKE's head of crisis response said: "I would say that the actual numbers of foreigners kidnapped from the late 1970s might have increased very gradually, but figures are not significantly higher today - just hot spots change."
Source: The Telegraph
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