The International Maritime Bureau has described the level of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea in December as “unprecedented”.
Comparisons are being drawn with the peak of the piracy crisis off Somalia in 2008, when five ships were hijacked in four days.
In the latest series of attacks, the hijacking of the 51,400-dwt tanker Happy Lady (built 2013) off Limboh, Cameroon, brought the decade to a close.
