U.S. Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser speaks during a press conference at Camp Lemonnier in Ambouli, Djibouti on April 23, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / JONATHAN ERNST (Photo credit should read JONATHAN ERNST/AFP/Getty Images)

General Tom Waldhauser, head of the U.S. military’s Africa Command, has warned that the threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia is rising.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the general believes that famine on the mainland will force many desperate Somalis into piracy.

Some of the vessels that have been taken under hijacking have had some food and some oil on them. Moreover, these particular ships have been very small in statute and really a lucrative target for pirates.”

In the past two months, there have been as many as six incidents of piracy, Waldhauser reports.

Interest within the region has increased following the first hijacking of a commercial ship since 2012. On 13 March, Aris 13, a 1,800-tonne cargo ship was taken over by pirates with all eight Sri Lankan crew held hostage.Following a gunfight, the crew were released some days later, with negotiators claiming that no ransom money paid

The Commercial Crime Service has reported at least one incident this week, in which a crew member of a product tanker was injured after being trailed by a skiff. Public attention has also resurfaced after the re-posting of a video of contracted security guards engaged in a gunfight on a freight ship as pirates threaten to board.

The global supply chain has a weakness around the Horn of Africa. The unstable near-anarchy of Somalia lies adjacent to one of world’s busiest shipping waters. Traffic funnels down to predictable lanes as crafts enter the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea.

The World Bank estimates that Somali piracy costs the global economy $18 billion a year. The high point of pirate action in 2011, Somali pirates launched 237 attacks according tothe International Maritime Bureau.

Since then, ships have improved their security arrangements and international co-ordination has increased.