The Malacca Straits recorded zero incidence of pirate attacks on ships in the second quarter of 2007 compared with 3 attacks in the same time of last year, local media reported on Monday.
The improvement was largely attributed to the cooperation between states bordering these waters, the ICC-International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said.
The piracy situation in the previously worrisome Malacca Straits has significantly improved, IMB said in its Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships report for the second quarter of 2007.
"No incidents were reported in this area in the second quarter of 2007," the New Straits Times quoted IMB as saying.
The Malacca Straits saw 11 pirate attacks on ships last year, against 12 in 2005.
In the first quarter of this year, it recorded two attacks on ships.
However, piracy attacks worldwide have jumped by 37 percent when compared with the second quarter of 2006, according to IMB.
Despite a spike in the second quarter, the six monthly total to date remains approximately on par with last year, with the total number of attacks for the first six months of 2007 totaling 126, from 127 in the same period last year.
So far this year, 13 vessels have been hijacked by heavily armed attackers, 152 crew members were taken hostage, 41 were kidnapped and 3 were killed.
In 66 cases, either guns or knives were used.
"Despite a sustained decrease in acts of piracy over the past three years, the statistics for the second quarter of this year suggest that we may be seeing a reversal of this trend.
"Somalia and Nigeria remain very dangerous, high risk areas with large numbers of violent kidnappings and hostage taking," Pottengal Mukundan, director captain of IMB said in a separate statement.
In Nigeria, 19 incidents were reported, while in Somalia, IMB had recorded 17 incidents in the first half of this year.
Source: Xinhua
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