UN, Interpol: Somali pirates earned 400 million dollars in ransom

Pirates that are based in northeastern Africa known as the “Horn of Africa” raked in about 400 million U.S. dollars in ransom over the past seven years, a survey found.

In a report of a joint survey released on Friday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol, and the World Bank Group publicized these and other findings, while introducing the situation of activities by Somali pirates from April 2005 to December 2012.

According to analysis of 59 cases of piracy-related “money models,” 30 to 75 percent of the income from ransom went to entrepreneurs who invested “venture funds” in pirates’ activities. Pirate entrepreneurs reinvested the income in crime activities such as human trafficking and weapons trade. Rank and file pirates who hijacked vessels in person shared 30,000 dollars to 75,000 dollars of income per hijacked ship.

Somali pirates earned the largest amount of ransom income in 2011, when they pocketed 151.10 million dollars to 155.67 million dollars. Their income plunged to 36.35 million dollars to 40.39 million dollars last year, however. The report analyzes that this results from positive effect of anti-piracy operations that the international community, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union, conducted in the Bay of Aden from 2008.

The report also estimates that negative impact Somali piracy has generated on the world economy amounts to about 18 billion dollars each year. This figure is a combined tally of all factors, including a decline in the number of vessels navigating through eastern waters of Africa, tourists, the volume of fisheries, and international financial transactions.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Somali pirates are shifting their activities into support of “Al Shabaab,” the militant group linked to the terrorist organization “Al Qaeda,” through smuggling of charcoal made from acacia tree, as they face difficulties in piracy due to strengthened crackdown of piracy by the international community.