Piracy around the Horn of Africa

Approximately 35 percent of all crude oil shipped by sea and one-third of all liquefied natural gas pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

[1] High Risk Areas for piracy (HRA) have been declared in different parts of the world to reflect precautions to be taken when ships transit them.

[7] The IBF has designated regions off Africa and Asia under 3 categories, each of which has different commercial implications: The above have resulted in the proliferation of floating armouries[8] - ships owned by private military contractors that allows their armed security guards (usually ex defence personnel from UK, France, EU and United States) to be hired by ship owners for a daily hire rate.

[10] The presence of floating armouries in the Indian Ocean has resulted in widespread criticism from neighbouring countries, especially India and Pakistan due to the obvious security concerns and incidents like the Enrica Lexie case.

This notably concerns whether the territorial waters and EEZ’ of the Western Indian Ocean littorals should be considered part of the HRA.

[22] At the 13th CGPCS held on 11 December 2012, CGPCS 'noted' the proposed meeting of a sub-group of WG 3 on 15 January 2013 in London which will include interested Member States and representatives of the insurance and maritime industry to further discuss the issue of the review of existing boundaries of the HRA on an objective and transparent basis taking into account actual incidents of piracy.

Those delegations expressed their view that the 'extended HRA as outlined in BMPs 3 and 4 does not reflect the reality regarding piracy activity in the Red Sea and some parts of the Indian Ocean'.

On 8 October 2015, the European Union Chair of the Contact Group of Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) announced a revision of the limits of High Risk Area (HRA).