Interpol, Europe police join up against piracy
(THE HAGUE) - Global policing group Interpol and Europe's police body announced Wednesday they had joined forces to fight piracy off northeastern Africa where several vessels have been seized for ransom.
Interpol and Europol signed an agreement to establish a "global police initiative" to combat threats of piracy in the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, they said in a joint statement.
The venture would include a new analysis project at Netherlands-based Europol while Interpol, headquartered in the French city of Lyon, would collect information on suspected pirates into a central database, it said.
They would also continue to exchange "experts", they said.
Modern-day pirates have since 2007 made the waters off the Horn of Africa among the most dangerous in the world, seizing cargo ships and fishing vessels and demanding hefty ransoms for their release.
The attacks are seen as a threat to one of the globe's most crucial maritime trade routes.
The European Union deployed warships into the pirate-infested waters in December last year and the attackers have shifted their focus to the wider Indian Ocean, a huge area much more difficult to patrol.
It has been difficult to bring captured pirates to justice in part because of insufficient evidence against them and a lack of legal provisions.
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