All U.N. member states should make piracy a crime as the problem surges in Somalia, the Security Council said.
Council members unanimously agreed to ask all U.N. member states to issue reports before the end of the year on measures they have taken to criminalize piracy, and to support prosecution of people suspected of piracy off the coast of the eastern African country.
The Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center reported last week that sea piracy worldwide has surged in the first nine months of this year, with Somali pirates intensifying their attacks despite more patrolling of nearby waters.
According to the global maritime watchdog, there have been a record 352 attacks worldwide in the first three quarters of this year, up 22 percent from a year ago. Pirates took 625 hostages, killed eight people and injured 41 in the nine-month period.
Somali pirates accounted for 199 attacks of those attacks, a 58 percent increase from last year, as they expanded farther into the Red Sea.
