UN: Somali pirates netted 170 million dollars in ransoms last year

Feb 22, 2012, 18:11 GMT

New York - The United Nations said Wednesday that Somali pirates received about 170 million dollars in ransoms in 2011, up from 110 million dollars in 2010, with some of the money channeled into the world's legal financial system.

The average ransom demanded to free a ship and crew stood at 5 million dollars and 10 million dollars for a tanker, the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) told the UN Security Council during a debate on piracy off the coast of Somalia.

UNODC's executive director Yuri Fedotov said the laundering of ransom money had caused steep price increases in the Horn of Africa and surrounding regions.

Fedotov said he was not aware of any ideological link between pirates and Somalia's al-Shabaab insurgents, who were reported to have alligned themselves with al-Qaeda. The insurgents have been fighting the internationally backed government in Mogadishu.

UNODC, which works with countries fighting piracy, said there are currently 1,116 young Somali men being prosecuted for piracy by courts in 20 countries around the world. He said another 688 pirates are being prosecuted in African countries like Kenya, Somalia, Seychelles, Tanzania and Mauritius.

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