The European Union is going to deploy a warship fleet tasked with defending commercial vessels from attacks by pirates off the Somali coast, officials said Wednesday (October 1).

This comes as a result of reports that pirates took control of a Kenya-bound cargo ship carrying 33 Russian-built military weapons. The seizure was only the latest in a growing list of attacks by pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden on both cargo ships and cruise ships.

A U.N. Security Council resolution, pushed by the U.S. and passed June 2, allows the U.S. and its coalition allies to intervene by “all necessary means” for the next six months to stop piracy off the Somali coast.

African waters account for 56% of all pirate attacks, spiking from 27 attacks in the first half of 2005 to 64 attacks since January. Meanwhile, pirate attacks elsewhere are dropping, reports the Piracy Reporting Center, a Malaysian-based group that monitors attacks for the bureau.

The U.S. has improved its patrols to try and stop the attacks. It has also increased its intelligence-sharing in the area, says Navy Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet in Bahrain, which patrols Middle Eastern and African waters.

The U.S. is “very concerned about the increasing number of acts of piracy and armed robbery” off the Somali coast, he says.

Somalia’s weak government has stated that it can not control its territorial waters.

For more information:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-20-pirates_N.htm