Somalia’s president has offered an amnesty to young pirates amid a "drastic" fall in the number of attacks off East Africa.

In an interview with the AFP news agency Wednesday, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said that he wanted to offer an "alternative means of earning a living" to young Somalis caught up in the lucrative business of hijacking ships and yachts, then ransoming the passengers and crew.

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"We have been negotiating with the pirates indirectly through the elders," Mohamud said. "Piracy has to end."

But he stressed the amnesty offer did not apply to senior pirates. “We are not giving them amnesty, the amnesty is for the boys,” he said

Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors piracy, said Thursday that there had been a "very drastic decrease" in the number of attacks of East Africa.

He said there had been just two attacks in the area so far this year, compared to 30 in January and February last year, a trend he described as "very, very positive."

The two recent attacks were unsuccessful and suspects in both incidents were later apprehended by international naval forces that patrol the seas off the Horn of Africa.

However, Mukundan stressed that "we cannot become complacent."

"There’s still a very high possibility that, if the guard is let down, attacks will happen," he said.

'Alternative jobs'
He said the naval presence in the area was one of the main reasons behind the drop in attacks.

Mukundan said pirates known to be guilty of attacks should be prosecuted, but added that an amnesty had worked well when it was tried in Nigeria in 2010.

"A number of militants who also doubled up as pirates and robbers did law down their weapons and look for alternative jobs," he said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement that five Somali men had been found guilty of "engaging in piracy and committing other offenses" in an attack on the USS Ashland on April 10, 2010.

According to their defense, the men were returning home in a skiff after taking refugees from Somalia to Yemen. The lawyers said they needed help and an AK-47 was fired toward Ashland to get its attention. Ashland returned fire, killing one and setting the skiff on fire.

"These men were pirates — plain and simple," U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in the statement. "They attacked a ship hoping to hold it ransom for millions of dollars. Few crimes are older than piracy on the high seas, and today’s verdict shows that the United States takes it very seriously."

George Venizelos, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said the five men were "headed where they belong: to federal prison."

"Let this send a clear message of deterrence to anyone who threatens those who traverse the high seas," he said.

The five, who face life in prison, are due to be sentenced in July.

Related:

Somali pirate kingpin says he's giving up hijacking; UN skeptical

World sea piracy falls to lowest level since 2008

Hostages freed by Somali pirates after nearly 3 years in captivity

MOGADISHU - A Somali pirate kingpin nicknamed "Big Mouth" says he has renounced a life of hijacking ships that earned him fame and fortune before an international naval crackdown that has curbed attacks on maritime commercial and pleasure craft.

A U.N. Monitoring Group report on Somalia in 2010 said that Mohamed Abdi Hassan "Afweyne" commanded bandits in the Arabian Sea and off the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa for almost a decade, raking in millions of dollars in ransom payments.

"I have given up piracy and succeeded in encouraging more youth to give up piracy," Afweyne told Reuters on Friday.

"This came as a result of my efforts for a long period. The boys also took the decision like me. It was not due to fear from warships, it was just a decision," he said by mobile phone from his base in Adado in central Somalia.

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Security analysts saw Afweyne's gesture as symbolic, saying he had already grown rich off the proceeds of piracy and seemed to have decided it was no longer worth the increasing risk.

"(Afweyne's move) may be a tacit recognition that the Somali piracy phenomenon no longer yields the lucrative criminal gains it did in previous years, thanks to successful naval operations and improved security and awareness on merchant vessels," said Rory Lamrock, intelligence analyst with security firm AKE.

"(Pirates) are getting shot up or arrested by private security companies and navies so he (Afweyne) is finding it increasingly difficult to find recruits," said Alan Cole, head of the anti-piracy program at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

"As many as 1,500 young men have left home hoping to come back rich and not come home at all," Cole said from Nairobi, capital of Somalia's southern neighbor, Kenya.

Naval patrols deter piracy
In 2011, Somali piracy in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the northwestern Indian Ocean netted $160 million, and cost the world economy some $7 billion, according to the American One Earth Future foundation.

But successful hijackings have been declining steadily since 2010 thanks to concerted patrolling by an international coalition of warships and the increasing use of armed private security guards on merchant ships.

Just seven ships were seized in the vast area of the Indian Ocean off Somalia in the first 11 months of last year, compared to 24 in the whole of 2011, after NATO, the European Union and other nations dispatched warships there.

Adado regional President Mohamed Aden Tiicey said Afweyne had actually withdrawn from active piracy some years ago, and was behind the surrender of 120 pirates over the past week.

"In 2010 our administration pardoned him and the then-interim government of Somalia also pardoned him and gave him a diplomatic passport," Tiicey said.

The U.N. Monitoring Group said last year that pirate chieftains such as Afweyne were being protected by Somali authorities from arrest. It said it had evidence a diplomatic passport had been issued to Afweyne by then-Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as a reward for what Somali officials said was Afweyne's involvement in anti-piracy activities.

The UNODC said it remained skeptical about Afweyne's announcement. "He's a criminal so is by implication dishonest, so we take this with a pinch of salt," said Cole.

The U.N. report said pirate leaders are now increasingly involved in land-based kidnap for ransom of foreign tourists and aid workers in northern Kenya and Somalia, as well as selling services as counter-piracy experts and consultants in ransom negotiations, and exploring "new types of criminal activity."

Somalia has been in chaos since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. His fall spawned clan warfare and Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants who are fighting to topple the Mogadishu government and impose a harsh brand of Islamic law.

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• World sea piracy falls to lowest level since 2008
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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

BOSASSO, Somalia -- A ship and its crew of 22 sailors held by Somali pirates for almost three years have been freed after a two-week-long siege by maritime police, the government of the breakaway region of Puntland said on Sunday.

The sailors aboard Panama-flagged MV Iceberg 1, from the Philippines, India, Yemen, Sudan, Ghana and Pakistan, were held for longer than any other hostages in the power of the pirates, who prey on shipping in the region, according to the president's office of the northern Somali enclave in a statement

Maritime police laid siege to the vessel on Dec. 10 near the coastal village of Gara'ad in the region of Mudug.

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"After 2 years and 9 months in captivity, the hostages have suffered signs of physical torture and illness. The hostages are now receiving nutrition and medical care," said the statement.

The ship originally had a crew of 24, but two had died since the roll-on roll-off cargo vessel was seized on March 29, 2010, some 10 miles from Aden, pirates said.

One of the pirate leaders said they only released the ship after negotiation with Puntland officials and local elders.

"They kindly requested the release of the ship we held for three years. Puntland forces had attacked us and tried to release the ship by force but they failed. We fought back and defeated them," the pirate known as Farah told Reuters.

Farah did not disclose whether any ransom had been paid for the crew and the ship, owned by Azal Shipping in Dubai with a deadweight of 4,500 tonnes.

Pirates rarely release ships without ransom, and usually raise their demands the longer they hold a vessel, because they charge for their expenses.

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International navies have had some recent success containing piracy in the Indian Ocean. 

Although more than 100 hostages taken off Somalia are still being held captive, the number of hijackings of ships dropped to seven in the first 11 months of this year compared to 24 in the whole of 2011.

Separately, Puntland said a group of eight Puntland soldiers responsible for briefly trying to sail away with a North Korea-flagged vessel, MV Daesan and its 33-member crew were jailed by a Puntland military court on Saturday.

MV Daesan, a North Korean ship ferrying cement to Somali capital Mogadishu, was impounded by the Puntland authorities and fined last month by Puntland authorities who accused it of ditching its cargo off Somalia's coast.

The soldiers had taken the vessel on Dec. 18.

"Puntland Government managed to return the vessel back to the port within 24 hours; the soldiers were arrested and will be brought to justice," the authorities said.

For Somali pirates, the risks of being arrested, killed or lost at sea are overshadowed by the potential for huge payouts. Ransoms for large ships in recent years have averaged close to $5 million. The largest reported ransom was $11 million for the Greek oil tanker MV Irene SL last year.

The ransoms are often air-dropped down to hijacked ships. Somalia has been mired in conflict since President Siad Barre was overthrown by warlords in 1991 who then turned on each other.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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DARTMOUTH, England -- Almost three years after Paul and Rachel Chandler were snatched at gunpoint and taken hostage by Somali pirates, they are returning to the high seas - in the same yacht.

The British pair were taken prisoner for 388 days while sailing in the Indian Ocean in October 2009 with the pirates demanding a $7-million ransom, a sum the Chandlers knew was far beyond what their family and friends could raise. Hidden in Somalia, they faced the risk of disease and feared getting caught in the cross-fire between multiple gangs or being sold to al-Qaida.

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Their torment now just a memory, the Chandlers are due to set off later this week on a six-month cruise to Brazil aboard the Lynn Rival.

"It's our life," Paul told NBC News. "Our yacht ... enabled us to get our sanity back. We won't be beaten by these guys."

The most striking thing about the couple is not that they emerged unscathed from captivity but just how intensely close they are. The strength of their marriage was key to helping them survive the 13-month long nightmare at the hands of Somali pirates.

Married for more than 30 years, Rachel often finishes Paul's sentences for him, while he hangs on her every word; they grin at each other constantly as if sharing a private joke.

Throughout our interview at a quiet marina in Devon, on the southwest coast of England, they inched closer together, often leaning in to whisper reassurances or give a squeeze of the hand.

Rachel, 58, is the chattier of the two with twinkling blue eyes and an easy smile. Paul, 61, is softly-spoken and amiable, but more reserved than his gregarious wife. Underneath the friendly banter there is a steely determination that must have served them well when they faced their biggest challenge at sea.

Somali pirates claim to kill hostage over ransom delay

As we sit aboard the Lynn Rival, the Chandlers recounted how they had just enjoyed a break in the Seychelles in October 2009 before setting sail for Tanzania. It was then that their trip turned into a living hell.

'Morbid souvenir'
The pirates launched their attack in the middle of the night while Rachel was on watch. She recalls hearing the engine of their vessel approach, a light was shone and then 10 men armed with guns and knives jumped on board yelling. A terrified Rachel froze. She shows me what she calls a "morbid souvenir," a sharp knife in its leather sheath belonging to one of the pirates. She giggles as she admits to having also kept one of the pirate's torn flip-flops; we joke about her putting it up for auction on eBay.

In their months as prisoners, the couple sometimes wondered if they should have jumped into the midnight ocean at that moment. However, they know that it would only have meant certain death. Instead they spent six days in confined space with Somali pirates while they and their boat were brought to a container ship. From there they realized bigger plans were afoot.

"We knew we were going to be taken on shore, and when we landed on Somalia, then it really hit home and that was a real low point," Paul said.

The couple were taken in-land where they were held for 382 more days. Somali pirates assume that all Westerners are extremely wealthy, especially those able to take a yacht to sea.  

Paul, a Cambridge University-educated civil engineer, and Rachel, a former government economist, embarked on a part-time sailing lifestyle in 2005 but knew that raising the $7-million ransom would be almost impossible.

"They knew that had to keep us alive and so they did feed us most of the time," says Rachel. "At times they tried to threaten us, obviously encourage us to beg for money when they allowed us to speak to our family. All they wanted was money."

From Sept. 2010: Pirates, insurers profit from high-seas raids

The weeks and months that followed were difficult. The couple had their hopes of being released dashed so many times, they soon learned to ignore the pirates attempts to upset them. Largely, the couple say, they came to no harm, although Paul does add they were beaten once. This was after they resisted the captors' attempts to separate them. The separation hit Rachel, in particular, very hard.

"I couldn't eat, I couldn't function, I couldn't think," she says. "I was worrying all the time about how Paul was and what pressure they are putting him under and whether he was well and still alive."

During this time Paul tried to befriend his captors while Rachel says she coped by daydreaming of rescue, recalling happier times and focusing on getting through from one day to the next.

In total they were held for 388 days, during which time Paul's elderly father passed away.

Their families finally managed to raise a fraction of the ransom demanded – about $440,000. The pirates took this but refused to return the couple. The couple's relatives were devastated -- and allege that they had very little help or guidance from the British government.

"Some governments have a reputation of being hard – the French and the Americans particularly," Paul said. "They want to send a message: Don't mess with our citizens. The British government hasn't had the will to do that. "

Report: Alarming rise in piracy off coast of West Africa

In the end, help came from an unexpected quarter. A British-Somali businessman reportedly raised some more cash and with some negotiation, secured their release.

The news flashed across the world. Unbeknownst to them, during their time in captivity the couple had become household names in Britain. The now-famous footage showing their moment of freedom has them looking thin and frail but chatting happily.

A stronger, healthier Rachel now tells me through smiles she was stunned by the coverage.

"It was the same time as [Myanmar's opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi [was freed] and to be next to her in the headlines was just unbelievable for us."

EU forces attack Somali pirates on land for 1st time

In the time since, the couple have not had any counseling but they say writing their book, "Hostage: A Year at Gunpoint with Somali Gangsters" has provided closure. But the most cathartic times may yet lie ahead, when they take Lynn Rival back to sea.

"I never stopped wanting to go out to sea," Rachel says. "What happened to us was an extremely unlucky experience. It hasn't changed my love of sailing, cruising or traveling."

They laugh at suggestions that they are either "bonkers or brave"; their biggest concern is neither flashbacks nor pirates striking again but more their physical fitness. But when pushed, Paul does hint at a new cautiousness.

Somali pirates go high tech

"It's a shame because every time we are approached by a little boat at sea, it's probably a fisherman wanting to give you fish in exchange for a cigarette or a bit of water, but we will be more wary."

After what they've been through, no one, least of all a friendly fisherman, would blame them.

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MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali pirates who have been holding a hijacked ship for nearly two years killed a Syrian hostage crew member and wounded another to protest a delayed ransom payment, a pirate leader said.

This is believed to be the first time Somali pirates have killed a hostage because of a delay in ransom.

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Hassan Abdi, a pirate commander in Haradhere town, a key pirate center, said that the killing on Wednesday was a message to the owners of the ship MV Orna, hijacked 400 miles northeast of the island nation of the Seychelles in December 2010.

"The killing was a message to the owners of the ship who paid no heed to our ransom demands," Abdi said by telephone.

"More killings will follow if they continue to lie to us — we have lost patience with them. Two years is enough," he said angrily.

The MV Orna is a Panama-flagged, bulk cargo vessel owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates.

The pirates operating along the Somali coastline of the Indian Ocean were once were believed to be disgruntled and financially motivated Somali fishermen, angry that international trawlers were illegally fishing Somalia's waters. But now criminal gangs are dominating the piracy trade and they have become increasingly violent as international navies attempt to crackdown on their activities.

Related: Pirates seize 24 sailors on Greek tanker off Togo coast 

Somali pirates aboard two attack skiffs hijacked the MV Orna after firing rocket propelled grenades and small arms at the ship, the European Union Naval Force said at the time.

In May last year an undisclosed number of pirates and hostages were forced to abandon the Orna after a fire broke out, said Abdi. It is believed the fire was caused by an electrical problem in the ship's kitchen, he said.

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The European Union Naval Force patrolling the Indian Ocean waters has not heard about the killing, said spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Jacqueline Sherriff.

Since, 2008, the EU has maintained a flotilla consisting of between five and 10 warships off the Horn of Africa to fight piracy. It is part of a larger international fleet that includes U.S., NATO, Russian and other warships. The EU taskforce also includes non-EU countries such as Norway, Croatia, Montenegro and Ukraine.

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Pirate attacks off Somalia's coast plunged to 69 in the first six months this year from 163 a year earlier, according to the EU force. Somali pirates were able to seize 13 vessels, down from 21, according to piracy watchdog the International Maritime Bureau.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Pirates attacked a ship being used by an oil servicing company in waters off southeastern Nigeria on Saturday, killing two Nigerian naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the navy said.

"The incident was somewhere around the Niger Delta, where an oil servicing company was attacked by gunmen. We lost two of our men and four expatriates were abducted, one Malaysian, one Iranian," navy spokesman Commodore Kabir Aliyu said.

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He said a Thai and an Indonesian were also taken, but had no immediate further details.

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Security in the Delta has improved since militant activity shut down nearly half of Nigeria's oil output around the middle of the last decade, thanks to an amnesty between various militant factions and the government.

But the situation remains volatile and inflamed by organized crime and local political rivalries.

Piracy and kidnapping in the Delta and offshore are common, and West Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is second only to the waters around Somalia for the risk of pirate attacks, which drives up shipping insurance costs.

They are seen as more of a criminal enterprise making huge sums for armed gangs than as anything political.

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Nigerian pirates usually release kidnapped crew members after their cargo has been looted, rather than hold them for ransom.

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Europe's naval force patrolling off the coast East Africa said on Tuesday it had attacked Somali pirate installations on land, the first time it had conducted such an action since extending its remit from strictly to sea-based operations. 

Initial reports indicated that there were no casualties during the operation, which happened earlier on Tuesday, according to the European Union Naval Force (Somalia) Operation Atalanta's website.

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"We believe this action by the EU Naval Force (NAVFOR) will further increase the pressure on, and disrupt pirates' efforts to get out to sea to attack merchant shipping and dhows," the commander of the EU Naval Force, Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, said in a statement. "The local Somali people ... many of whom have suffered so much because of piracy in the region, can be reassured that our focus was on known pirate supplies and will remain so in the future."

The action was conducted from the air and "at no point did EU Naval Force 'boots' go ashore," the statement said.

Arms race? Somali pirates, tankers up their game

The European force, which is trying to stamp out piracy off the coasts of lawless Somalia, is made up of around 1,400 military personnel, nine warships and five maritime surveillance aircraft, according to NAVFOR's website. 

Despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea owing to the vast distances involved.

Fighting Somali pirates with science

Seaborne gangs have raked in an estimated $150 million in ransoms in what has become a highly organized, international criminal enterprise, security analysts say. Somali pirates in the failed state have carried out more than 800 attacks on ships, from private yachts to oil supertankers since 2008, Bloomberg reported. 

Interactive: Global piracy 

On March 23 the EU Council decided to allow its forces in the region to take "disruption action against known pirate supplies on the (Somali) shore."

"Putting pressure on their business model by destroying their boats and eliminating their fuel dumps will make life more difficult for the sponsors of piracy and the pirates themselves," the Council said in a statement. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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The number of pirate attacks in West African waters is increasing alarmingly, according to a new report.

The International Maritime Bureau’s global piracy report said there were 102 incidents worldwide in the first three months of 2012; four people were killed, 212 crew members were taken hostage and 11 vessels were hijacked.

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A further 45 vessels were boarded, there were 32 attempted attacks and 14 vessels were fired on.

A statement emailed to journalists from the International Chamber of Commerce – the International Maritime Bureau is part of its anti-crime arm – said there had been a dangerous rise in the number of attacks off Nigeria and other West African countries.

“Nigerian piracy is increasing in incidence and extending in range,” Pottengal Mukundan, director of the IMB Piracy Reporting Center, said in the statement.

“At least six of the 11 reported incidents in Nigeria occurred at distances greater than 70 nautical miles from the coast, which suggests that fishing vessels are being used as motherships to attack shipping further afield,” he added.

High levels of violence
The statement said there had been 10 reports of piracy from Nigeria in the first quarter of the year, the same as reported for the whole of 2011. A further attack in neighboring Benin was also attributed to Nigerian pirates.

It said two crew members were killed when their vessel was boarded 110 nautical miles off Nigeria.

However, Somalia continued to see the most incidents, with 43 attacks resulting in nine vessels being hijacked. This was down from the first quarter of 2011, when 97 incidents and 16 hijackings were reported.

Video: An intimate look at the search for pirates

“While the number of reported incidents in Nigeria is still less than Somalia, and hijacked vessels are under control of the pirates for days rather than months, the level of violence against crew is dangerously high,” Mukundan said.

The International Chamber of Commerce runs a global map of piracy attacks that is updated live.

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MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A British tourist snatched by Somali gunmen from a resort island in Kenya was freed on Wednesday after more than six months in captivity, according to reports.

Judith Tebbutt was taken in September by gunmen who killed her husband, David Tebbutt, during the attack.

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The Associated Press reported that Tebbutt's release on Wednesday was confirmed by a Somali pirate named Bile Hussein and by an official with the militia Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama named Mohammed Hussein.

A third official from the ASWJ militia who asked not to be named said a ransom was paid to pirates for Tebbutt's release. No figure was given.

The BBC reported that Tebbutt's relatives had raised the sum demanded by the pirates. BBC journalist Frank Gardner reported that a private security company secured Tebbutt's release.

Britain's Foreign Office declined to comment.

Gunmen entered the Tebbutts' resort room easily on the night of Sept. 10 -- their resort door was only a piece of colorful cloth.

Police believe that David Tebbutt resisted and was shot.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Pirates off Nigeria's coast attacked a cargo ship Monday, killings its captain and chief engineer in the increasingly dangerous waters of the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa, officials said.

"All crew except the bridge team took shelter in the citadel. Due to the continuous firing the captain and the chief engineer were shot," a notice on the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) official said.

The captain and chief engineer died of their wounds as the pirates sprayed the ship with gunfire, said Cyrus Mody, an official at the bureau.

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Mody said the bureau had yet to receive additional information about the ship and its crew, though they did contact authorities in Nigeria. A spokesman for Nigeria's navy and the nation's maritime safety agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

The killings come as another ship nearby was attacked this weekend and pirates hijacked a tanker ship off the coast of neighboring Benin on Thursday, according to the maritime bureau.

Pirates off the coast of Nigeria tend to raid ships for cash and cargo rather than hijacking the crews for ransom like their counterparts off the coast of Somalia.

The frequency of attacks, while not as high as off the Somali coast or surrounding Indian Ocean, is on the rise.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.