JOIN USThe pirates staged 37 successful hijackings of ships in the first 10 months of 2010, up from 33 in the same period of 2009, said a report. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the pirates a "scourge".
International Maritime Organization (IMO) inquiries "imply that the level of violence employed by the pirates has increased," said the UN document prepared for the UN Security Council.
The number of attacks has fallen from 193 to 164 as the international naval patrols are more effective, the UN said, quoting IMO figures. But as of October 11, 389 people and 18 vessels were being held ransom by the pirates.
The pirates have increased their scope of action in the Indian Ocean by setting up bigger attack fleets. So-called "Pirate Action Groups" now see a large "mother boat" command vessel tow two or three attack skiffs out deeper into the ocean.
It said some of the attacks were now up to 1,300 nautical miles off the coast and targeted "ever-larger freighters". The international military presence has reduced the number of attacks and hijackings in the Gulf of Aden shipping lanes, but the pirates now roam the southern end of the Red Sea and even venture as far as the Maldives, the report said.
"This eastward and southward shift in piracy has brought a much greater maritime area under threat," said the report. "The plight of the 389 hostages currently held by pirates on Somali territory is of particular concern," Ban commented in the document.