THE number of incidents of piracy at sea has increased in the first quarter in West African waters off Nigeria and Benin to equal all attacks in the region combined last year, reports the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

Of the 102 incidents reported, 45 vessels were boarded, 32 attempted attacks and 14 vessels fired on by either Somali or Nigerian pirates, reports American Shipper. Eleven vessels were hijacked and 212 crew taken hostage with four killed in an area extending its range by 70 nautical miles from the coast suggesting the ploy of fishing vessels as motherships.

Although the number of incidents in Nigeria are fewer than off Somalia, and hostage time is measured in days, not months, violence levels are "dangerously high", said IMB Piracy Reporting Centre director Pottengal Mukundan.

Other areas of incidence include those in the Indonesian archipelago, which have more than tripled in the first quarter 2012 to 18 from five in the same period 2011.

But Somali piracy by volume remains the biggest problem even though down by half of 2011 levels at 43 attacks, in which nine vessels were hijacked and 144 crew taken hostage.

The overall reduction in Somali waters is credited to the efforts of international navies patrolling the area, which has disrupted pirate action groups, said the reporting centre.