One of the oldest threats to humanity — maritime piracy — continues to pose real challenges in various regions of the world’s oceans and is rightly included among the pressing non-traditional threats to international security.
Despite its rather venerable age — stretching back thousands of years — maritime piracy is in no hurry to retreat into the purely virtual realm of cinema and adventure literature. The state of affairs in this sphere naturally remains on the periphery of public attention, yet it still commands a keen interest — including from our publication.
Are Pirates Becoming Less Active?
When assessing trends that define the dynamics of this phenomenon, optimists point to a noticeable decline in global pirate activity in recent years. According to the latest annual report from the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre — one of the most authoritative sources of real-time information and statistics in this field — the number of recorded pirate attacks has dropped nearly fourfold. While the “record-breaking” year of 2011 saw 439 reported incidents, in recent years, this figure has declined significantly, with only 116 attacks registered in 2024. This, in turn, allows experts to speak of “the lowest level of pirate activity in the past three decades.”
A positive trend has been observed in several traditionally high-risk regional piracy hotspots. For instance, in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea — until recently the global leader in pirate attacks — the number of incidents has decreased from 81 in 2020 to just 18 in 2024. No new acts of piracy were recorded in the Pacific waters of Latin America during the period under review, whereas, until quite recently, up to 20 attacks per year were reported in the waters near Callao (Peru) alone.
A Continuing Threat to Seafarers
However, any claims of a definitive turning point in the fight against piracy must be made with significant reservations: while piracy levels have declined in some regions, they have increased in others. For example, off the coast of the Horn of Africa — a historical epicentre of Somali pirate activity — there has been a fresh surge in criminal operations after several years of relative “calm.” In 2024, three vessels were hijacked in these waters, two others were boarded, and yet another came under fire.
Tensions also remain high in the waters of Southeast Asia, particularly in the Singapore and Malacca Straits, where 43 incidents of piracy were recorded. Given that the primary targets of pirate attacks in these areas were mainly bulk carriers and oil tankers, this underscores the ongoing security risks along one of the world’s most critical maritime energy transport routes from the Persian Gulf to Asia-Pacific countries.
Despite enhanced security measures for maritime crews, 126 people were kidnapped in 2024 alone. At the same time, there has been an increase in the documented use of both firearms and bladed weapons by pirates.
The Uncompromising Fight Against Piracy Continues
On the whole, the international community’s struggle against “maritime rogues” comes at a steep cost. The so-called “piracy tax” — the direct economic damage resulting from this criminal activity — includes expenses such as ransom payments to pirates, the maintenance of international naval forces, the forced rerouting of vessels to avoid “high-risk zones” (the so-called “re-routing”), the equipping of merchant ships with modern anti-piracy defence systems, the payment for security services, legal costs, and the upkeep of captured pirates in detention facilities, among other expenditures. Even more striking is the growing macroeconomic burden, which encompasses losses in the fishing, tourism, and other industries of countries located within piracy-prone areas, as well as the direct financial impact suffered by international trade entities due to pirate activities. According to expert estimates, the total financial damage caused by piracy currently amounts to approximately $37 billion per year.
Foreign experts point out that positive results in this battle are achieved only in those maritime regions where the necessary level of cooperation and coordination between international actors has been established. For example, the relative improvement in certain waters — particularly in the high-risk “Sulawesi-Mindanao arc,” where no new hostage-taking incidents have been recorded in recent years — is primarily attributed to joint patrol efforts by ASEAN nations, especially Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
Meanwhile, the containment of Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa is largely ensured by international naval forces, including the European Union’s Operation Atalanta, as well as naval task forces from several other nations, including Russia.
A significant step towards strengthening international cooperation in combating piracy and improving coordination in maritime security was the large-scale naval exercise “Komodo,” held in February this year near South Sulawesi at Indonesia’s initiative. The exercise involved warships from 30 nations, including the Russian Navy.
When discussing the importance of continuing the uncompromising fight against piracy today, it seems fitting to take a brief look back at history and recall the Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. Having personally endured the hardships of pirate captivity before being ransomed, Cicero famously denounced the criminal nature of piracy in one of his speeches in the Roman Senate, declaring: “Pirata est hostis humani generis!” — “A pirate is an enemy of mankind!” — and calling for its ruthless eradication.
Although Cicero’s proclamation dates back to the 1st century BC, it remains relevant to this day. Experts warn that despite certain successes in the fight against maritime piracy, any weakening of efforts to suppress piracy on a global scale is “fraught with the risk of a resurgence of this criminal practice.” The continued threat posed by piracy today underscores the pressing need for the international community to intensify and coordinate its efforts in this domain.
Gladchenko Leonid, expert political analyst, member of the “Analytics“ Association.
