“The Secretary-General welcomes the successful conclusion of the Summit of the Gulf of Guinea Heads of State and Government on maritime safety and security, which took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon,” said a statement issued yesterday evening by Ban’s spokesperson.

The two-day meeting included Member States of the region, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC).

Ban commended all the participants for their high level of engagement and collective efforts to address and prevent piracy, “which remains a serious threat to the security and economic activities of the affected countries.”

He also welcomed the adoption of the “Code of Conduct concerning the Prevention and Repression of Piracy, Armed Robbery against Ships, and Illegal Maritime Activities in West and Central Africa,” which defines the regional strategy and paves the way for a legally binding instrument.

“He encourages all Member States of the region to sign and implement it, and calls on bilateral, regional and international partners to provide the necessary resources,” the statement said, adding that the United Nations stands ready to continue to support this process, including through the work of the Secretary-General’s Special Representatives for Central and West Africa.

In a statement delivered to the opening meeting of the “milestone” summit, Ban recalled that less than two years ago, the Security Council issued its first-ever resolution on this issue, calling on countries of the Gulf of Guinea to develop a comprehensive response to piracy and armed robbery at sea.

“You have met this challenge head on,” he said, stressing the international community’s collective responsibility to keep the situation from escalating. “We must strengthen our efforts and cooperate even more closely.”

“We are very pleased to report that the MT SMYRNI has been released after ten months in the captivity of Somali pirates.”

Sailing under a Liberian flag the tanker, owned by Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd, was hijacked in May by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman, carrying 135,000 tonnes of crude oil.

Pirates said they released the vessel last week after receiving $9.5 million ransom, Reuters reported.

The company declined to comment on the ransom claim.

Pirates also told the news agency that two crew member were ill. The company, however, said in a statement that all the crew members are safe and well and the vessel is proceeding to a port of refuge.

The crew consists of 26 members – 14 Filipinos, 11 Indians and one Romanian.

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said the 14 Filipino crew members of the Greek are in good condition.

Piracy has prompted some of the world’s largest shipping firms to switch routes from the Suez Canal and redirect cargo vessels around Southern Africa, which leads to additional shipping costs.

Dynacom Tankers Management, Ltd., a shipping company, operates cargo vessels for the oil industry. The company was founded in 1991 and is based in Athens, Greece with additional offices in India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

As 400 titans of shipping and government from 50 countries assemble today for a two-day international counter-piracy conference in Dubai, experts are urging multilateral action to stem escalating torture of seafarers kidnapped at gunpoint.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the “threat posed by maritime piracy to global trade, and to the region’s security and economic well-being, continues to be grave. Much progress has been made since the last time leaders from government, the global maritime industry, and experts and policymakers joined together in Dubai, in April 2011. However, the persistence of pirate activity off the coast of Somalia reaffirms the UAE’s belief that more work towards a comprehensive international counter-piracy response is required.”

To date, an estimated 235 hostages remain in the hands of heavily armed high-seas marauders awaiting ransom payment by vessel owners. An estimated 35 mariners did not survive their encounters with plundering pirates in 2011.

Dr. Theodore Karasik, director of Research and Development at Institute for Near East & Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai said all indicators point to a piracy crisis that has gone from bad to worse for shipping crews caught in the crossfire.

Karasik lauded UAE senior officials for hosting the piracy conference to push for real solutions that will help curtail nightmarish hostage-taking episodes for the long term.

In 2011, 3,863 seafarers were assaulted by pirates during initial raids and 1,206 people were held captive by pirate gangs. 645 hostages captured in 2010 remained in pirate hands in 2011, whilst 35 hostages captured by Somali pirates died and 8 were killed by pirates during attacks; 19 died during rescue efforts or while trying to escape.

Sources: International Maritime Bureau, Gulf News

“The focused, precise and proportionate action was conducted from the air and all forces returned safely to EU warships on completion. Whilst assessment is on-going, surveillance of the area during the action indicates that no Somalis were injured ashore as a result of EU action,” accoridng to EU naval force statement.

Speaking about the operation, the Operation Commander of the EU Naval Force, Rear Admiral Duncan Potts said “We believe this action by the EU Naval Force will further increase the pressure on, and disrupt pirates’ efforts to get out to sea to attack merchant shipping and dhows.”

The strike on what the EU force reassured was “on known pirate supplies” came after , sea bandits seized a Greek-owned tanker carrying close to a million barrels of crude oil on Thursday, while it was sailing in the Arabian sea,  Although the hijack success rate for Somali pirates has dropped sharply in recent months.

The EU’s Operation Atalanta has deployed between five and 10 warships off the Somali coast since 2008 to escort humanitarian aid shipments and thwart pirate raids on commercial vessels using vital shipping lanes, accoridng to Al Arabiya.

Somalia-based pirates have made millions of dollars in ransoms in what has become an organized, international criminal enterprise, experts say.

The reach of Somali pirates is vast; they have attacked merchant ships up to 1,750 miles off the Somali coast.

Dynacom Tankers Management said it had lost contact with the crew of the following the attack off Oman at 11:15 GMT on Thursday, according to AP.

Dynacom did not give further details but a Kenya-based piracy expert, Andrew Mwangura, said Smyrni was headed for Somalia while it is reported to have a crew of about 15 on board, composed of Indians and Filipinos, Al Jazeera reported.

The hijack success rate for Somali pirates has declined  in recent months, which 
has been attributed to plans by several countries to allow ships using their flags to sail with armed guards. It has not been reported, however, whether the Smyrni had such guards on board. On board the vessel.

Although 
the recent changes in Greek law were established to permit armed guards on Greek-flagged vessels, even though Liberia also permits armed guards on its flag vessels; recent reports from Greece claim that the vessel did not have a security team embarked, OceanUSlive.Org reported. 

Ealier on Wednesday, pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at a crude tanker 56km east of Socotra, an island located between Yemen and Somalia’s lawless coastline, OceanUSlive.org said.

Seaborne gangs have raked in an estimated $150m in ransoms in what has become a highly organised, international criminal enterprise, experts say.

EU naval ships are currently on patrol off the Horn of Africa in an effort to protect vessels.