Pirates often operate in international waters, posing a challenge for governments to effectively combat it. Besides laws that outlaw piracy and punish convicted pirates, countries deploy armed ships to patrol important maritime chokepoints, guard private ships and if need be, fend off pirate ships.
Most pirate-infested waters
Piracy is an international phenomenon, not bound to any particular region. There are, however, factors that make piracy flourish in certain parts of the world. Poor coastal areas with few economic opportunities, low literacy rates, weak governments, and the rule of law, as well as easy access to weapons and proximity to busy shipping lanes give rise to more pirate activity than other areas. A prime example of such an area is Somalia, which was considered a piracy hotspot between the 1990s and 2010s. It was only after a concerted international effort led by the UN to combat Somali piracy that the number of piracy attacks off of the Somali coast dropped dramatically in the late 2010s.Nowadays, most pirate attacks are committed in the Gulf of Guinea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. In the last five years, between 36 and 48 attacks were carried out annually against ships in the Nigerian waters, and between 26 and 49 piracy attacks were committed in the Indonesian waters in the same period. Although piracy can be carried out by people to secure livelihood, more often than not it is a way for militant groups and criminal gangs to raise money for their activities.
