The head of the United Nations body charged with combatting piracy has advocated establishing a UN force to pacify an area of the sea, in the face of the piracy problem off Somalia and Yemen.

Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary general of the International Maritime Organisation, made the call in an interview with the Financial Times when he described the crisis in the Gulf of Aden – the gateway to the vital Suez Canal – as among the most severe facing the world.

This year has seen 77 attacks on vessels in the Gulf of Aden, with 31 hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors piracy. More than 200 crew and 10 vessels are still being held in Somalia. The most recent hijacking – of an 80,000-tonne vessel carrying iron ore from Canada to China – came last Wednesday.