All News Items

Nigeria, Sao Tome agree oil-zone maritime security

22nd Dec 2009

Nigeria and the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe have agreed to set up a joint maritime military commission to protect offshore crude oil fields and try to check piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, officials said on Monday.

The two countries share a joint offshore oil development zone in an area where the numbers of armed gangs, pirates and organised criminals have risen in recent years.

"Recent security developments in the Gulf of Guinea especially on the illegal trafficking of arms and ammunition have become serious concerns," the two countries said in a joint statement following a meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja.

"If the situation is allowed to deteriorate without instituting a mechanism to check the atrocities, it could threaten our national security."

Although acts of piracy are more frequent off Somalia in east Africa, analysts say ships passing through the Gulf of Guinea are at greater peril because West African pirates have shown they are ready to use deadly force to snatch oil cargoes.

Seaborne gangs seize oil tankers and sail them to one of many ports along the coast which, analysts say, lack sufficient security or where officials can be bribed. The stolen oil can then be sold into the local market.

The insecurity is a deterrent for investors.

Sao Tome has been looking for partners to extract crude oil reserves off its coast and expects to launch its first oil block tender at the end of January or early February next year.

But exploration in its joint development zone with Nigeria has so far been disappointing. Chevron has said an early oil strike did not prove commercially viable but it is continuing to drill.

China's Sinopec and Addax Petroleum are also exploring there.

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Indian Navy foils piracy attempt on foreign vessel

20th Dec 2009

An Indian Navy warship, patrolling the piracy-infested Gulf of Aden, has thwarted a piracy attempt on a foreign vessel, a Navy official said Sunday.
“INS Godavari got a distress call at 5:30 p.m. yesterday (Saturday) that a pirate’s skiff was approaching them. Immediately, a helicopter was launched,” said an Indian Navy official, adding that the helicopter fired warning shots at the skiff.

“A team was also sent on board the skiff and all the materials like ladders used to board ships. The seven to eight pirates had thrown all their weapons in the sea and due to lack of any evidence to prosecute them, they were released,” the official said.

This was the second successful anti-piracy operation by INS Godavari that has been deputed in Somalia waters since mid-November. The warship is now on its way back to India and will be replaced by INS Ganga.

The Gulf of Aden is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The Indian Navy has deployed its warships in the region since late last year to thwart piracy attempts.

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Piracy pushes up cost of crude oil transport

20th Dec 2009

Piracy in the Indian Ocean is beginning to take its toll on oil firms as shipping companies jack up the cost of transporting crude oil to Mombasa.

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Somali pirates freed for lack of prosecution

19th Dec 2009

A group of Somali pirates arrested for attacking two cargo ships were released due to lack of prosecution by any country.

The 13 suspects were captured in the Indian Ocean two weeks ago.

The EU naval forces seized nine automatic weapons, grenades, and other ammunition on board their skiff.

"The European Union has tried in vain since their arrest to find a country which would agree to prosecute them,” the defense ministry statement said.

“The defense ministry regrets that the European Union has not found a suitable solution."

The Republic of Seychelles and Kenya, which have signed a contract with the EU to assist in the capture and prosecution of suspected pirates, did not want to prosecute the 13 members in custody.

Legal legislation regarding the pirates' arrest has obstructed efforts in the prosecution and the control over piracy in the Gulf of Aden, also known as Pirate Alley.

There have only been a few pirate prosecutions outside Africa.
 

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14 Filipino seamen freed by Somali pirates

18th Dec 2009

Fourteen Filipino seafarers on board a Greek vessel was freed by ransom-seeking Somali pirates this week, the Philippine embassy in Nairobi reported Friday.

    The Filipino crew of MV Delvina are "safe and in good health." The vessel and its crew are now heading to Mombasa.

    The latest release has reduced the number of hijacked Filipino seafarers off the coast of Somalia to 56, involving five vessels. Philippine foreign affairs and labor officials are coordinating with concerned manning agencies and their shipping principals on the release and repatriation of Filipino seafarers.

    The Philippine government is stepping up efforts to address the rising incidence of piracy and hostage-taking involving Filipino seafarers off the coast of Somalia.

    The Philippine labor department is requiring Filipino seafarers to undergo anti-piracy training to teach them how to deal with piracy situations and how to avoid it. It has also issued safety and security directives to manning agencies of ships plying the Gulf of Aden.

    The Philippines is the world's leading supplier of ship crew with over 350,000 sailors, or about a fifth of the world's seafarers, manning oil tankers, luxury liners and passenger vessels worldwide, exposing them to piracy attacks.

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Somali Pirates Hijack Indian Dhow Off The Horn Of Africa

15th Dec 2009

Somali pirates have seized yet another vessel off the Horn of Africa coast. The latest ship to fall victim to pirates is an Indian dhow.

 Authorities confirmed the the hijacking on Monday but said the Laxmi Sagar was seized on Sunday. According to published reports the vessel operates frequently between Saudi Arabia and the African coast.

This week's recent incident is just another in a every increasing piracy problem off the coast of Africa. The waters off the coast of Somalia has been rife with piracy and numerous vessels from various countries have fallen prey to their attacks and ransom demands.

Maritime officials say nearly 25,000 ships a year use the shipping lines in Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast. Furthermore anti-piracy task forces say the waterway also boasts being the highest risk of piracy in the world.

Somali marine forces recently trained to guard the coast and African Union security personnel captured three suspected pirates on Sunday. Authorities say the case involving the three is currently ongoing and they will likely be tried in Mogadishu.

 

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Nigeria: Nation's Coast Among World's Worst, Says IMB

14th Dec 2009

THE International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has reported that an increase in the number of violent attacks on vessels off the coast of Nigeria saying that the "nation's coast is one of the worst in the world".

This is the second time in two years that pirate activities in Nigeria is giving the Bureau a serious concern.

The attacks which is usually aimed at robbing vessels and their crew of monies and other valuables, sometimes end up in violence.

The Bureau also reported that most of the pirate attacks in Nigeria are not reported to the Piracy Reporting Centre of the IMB.

Reacting to the recent attack on an oil tanker 'Cancale Star on November 24, where the Nigerian Chief Officer lost his life during the attack off Cotonou (Benin Republic) by Nigeria's border, the bureau said the tanker was boarded by eight or nine robbers, all armed with guns and knives.

"The hijackers managed to gain access to the bridge where they demanded ship's cash and crew personal belongings before beating the master and tying several other crew members.

"Another officer was able to raise the ship's alarm causing the pirates to panic and as they tried to escape, the vessel's chief officer was shot and killed.

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Distracted politicians ignore piracy

13th Dec 2009

What could better highlight the atrocious piracy situation at present than Captain Philip Beale's letter (December 6) sent from the Indian Ocean? He is navigating his replica sailing ship following the same route the Phoenicians took 2,500 years ago, but appears to have found pirates more hazardous than they ever were then.

Recently, the International Transport Federation declared the Indian Ocean as "unfit for seafarers". The International Chamber of Shipping stated that the current level of threat to the industry was unacceptable and could not be allowed to continue. Since early last year, more than 250 ships have been attacked, over 70 hijacked, 1,300 seafarers taken hostage and several killed.

The few international naval ships trying to guard the merchant shipping are hamstrung by the very size of the area to patrol and with restrictive terms of engagement, favouring the human rights of the pirates over that of the seafarers.

Governments are too immersed in the climate-change debate, worrying economics and the Afghanistan conflict to pay sufficient attention, and the merchant seafarer's concern is that as insurance rates escalate, the piracy they face will simply become included with "perils of the sea" and forgotten.

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Somali Piracy Tribunals Unlikely, Despite Calls

11th Dec 2009

Efforts to establish an international court to prosecute Somali pirates face complex laws governing the seas and national sovereignty as well as the lack of an effective police force, experts said on Thursday.

In the past three years, commercial shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe in the Horn of Africa's coastal waters have seen a rise in attacks by pirates who have earned tens of millions of dollars in ransom from hijacks of mostly foreign vessels.

"The legal framework constraining action against piracy has remained essentially unchanged since the 18th century," Vaughan Lowe, public international law professor at Oxford, told legal, policy and military experts on fighting piracy.

"The international law framework needs to be modified if it is to serve modern needs effectively," Lowe said.

While the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has provisions on piracy, they are often ineffective in bringing pirates to justice because they rely heavily on national governments to prosecute and try suspects.

Moreover, piracy also involves criminal and civil law, which can complicate prosecution. For example, if pirates are categorized as terrorists, those making ransom payments may also face prosecution under terrorism financing legislation.

Somali pirates freed the Greek ship Ariana and its 24 Ukrainian crew on Thursday after a helicopter dropped a multi-million dollar ransom onto its deck and ended a more than six-month hostage ordeal.

Anti-piracy operations by the European Union, NATO and several individual states have failed to deter the pirates, who are still holding 11 ships along with 283 crew.

COURT OF PIRACY?

But one key topic raised at discussions, hosted by the International Criminal Law Network, a Hague-based think tank, was whether the International Criminal Court (ICC), also based in The Hague, could expand its jurisdiction to include piracy.

While experts said they expect the ICC -- which was set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court -- to take up the issue of piracy at its Review Conference in Uganda in May of 2010, they don't expect an expansion of jurisdiction.

Moreover, countries in the Horn of Africa most affected by piracy -- Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea -- are not signatories to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.

Enforcement, however, would be the biggest problem.

"The ICC does not have an international police or task force to enforce the ICC statute," said Geert-Jan Knoops, a Utrecht University professor of international criminal law.

Other proposals include establishing a hybrid tribunal with international and national jurisdictions, said Judge Tullio Treves of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

The tribunal, established by UNCLOS and based in Hamburg, Germany, handles legal issues over the oceans and resources.

At a separate conference earlier this week on Somali piracy, representatives from Somalia and Puntland, the self-declared autonomous region in northeastern Somalia where pirates are mostly based, said the real solution would be in finding jobs for the pirates, most of whom are former fishermen.

"The solutions are on land, not at sea," said Somalia's Ambassador to the U.N. Yusuf Mohamed Ismail.

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Somali pirates free Greek ship with Ukrainian crew

10th Dec 2009

Greek ship with a Ukrainian crew that had been held by Somali pirates since May has been freed, Ukraine's president and the vessel's owners say.

President Viktor Yushchenko confirmed the release after Ariana's Athens-based owners said they had paid an undisclosed sum to the pirates.

The pirates claimed that they received nearly $3m (£1.8m) in ransom.

The ship and its 24-strong crew were captured as it sailed south-west of the Seychelles on 2 May.

"I congratulate the nation, and I congratulate the families on the successful operation to free our sailors," said Mr Yushchenko.

He said negotiations with the pirates had been "very difficult", adding that a plane would soon bring the crew back to Ukraine.

Alloceans Shipping, the company which owns the vessel, also announced that the ship had been freed.

The Ukrainian sailors were in good health, company director Spyros Minas said.

He said the pirates had already left the ship.

The Maltese-flagged vessel, said to be carrying 35,000 tons of soya, was sailing from Brazil to the Middle East when it was captured, Alloceans Shipping said.

Shipping off the Horn of Africa has been plagued by piracy for years.

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Navy patrols may extend as Somali pirates widen attacks

10th Dec 2009

The British admiral in charge of the EU flotilla carrying out anti-piracy patrols off Somalia is considering extending the area which they patrol.

Rear Adm Peter Hudson said this was because some attacks had been closer to India than the coast of Africa.

The EU Naval Force is one of the main international formations trying to counter piracy off Somalia.

These forces insist they have reduced the number of successful attacks. But they have not eliminated them.

And the pirates have adapted.

'Balance'

Rear Adm Hudson says he is in discussions with his political and military bosses to extend his patrol area because the pirates have been launching attacks at ever great range - up to 1,000 nautical miles from the Somali coast.

"I have to keep the balance between area, where my aircraft can go, what advice we give to ships, where the pirates operate," he said.

"It's a constant little equation that we're looking at.

"And because we've seen some of these attacks now right nearer to India than Africa, we just have to review where our operating area is and we'll make recommendations to Brussels and see what they think."

Rear Adm Hudson says support from EU countries has been good, including the provision of vital maritime patrol aircraft for surveillance.

But he has, on average, six to seven warships under his command, to cover a sea area already 10 times the size of Germany.

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Somali pirates hijack Pakistan-flagged ship

9th Dec 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya — The spokesman for the European Union's anti-piracy force says Somali pirates have hijacked a Pakistan-flagged fishing vessel.

Cmdr. John Harbour says the pirates seized the MV Shahbaig Tuesday. He says there are 29 crew on board and more details will be available later Wednesday.

Pirates are still holding hundreds of crew and a dozen vessels hostage in Somalia. Piracy has remained at high levels this year despite a growing number of international warships and extra safety precautions taken by merchant vessels.

Somalia does not have a coast guard or navy to stop the pirates because it has not had an effective central government for 18 years.

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Tougher International Action Against Pirates Can Make The Seas Safe Again

9th Dec 2009

Piracy along the Somali coast has seen an unprecedented increase in the last year. According to the BBC So far, there have been 147 incidents in the waters off the Somali coast and in the Gulf of Aden, compared with 63 for the same period last year. A total of 533 crew members have been taken hostage. Furthermore, according to the BBC again, the IMB (The International Maritime Bureau) also says the pirates appear to have “extended their reach, threatening not only the Gulf of Aden and east coast of Somalia, but also the southern region of the Red Sea, the Bab el Mandab Straits and the East Coast of Oman”.

The pirate’s are becoming bolder with every ransom paid to them and their attacks have now escalated into kidnapping and demanding ransoms from individuals as well as multinational vessels. At present an international search is under way for a British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler who were captured by Somali Pirates whilst in their yacht heading to Tanzania from the Seychelles. The combination of the Chandlers ordeal, their desperate appeal for help and the greed of the Somali pirates has firmly placed Somali piracy in the international media spotlight.

Whilst the Pirates and their financial backers may be enjoying the limelight and comfortably living off their ill gotten gains, the majority of the worlds businesses are counting the painful cost of it all. As a result of the pirate attacks, many ships have changed routes and those that have been brave enough to continue using the pirate infested routes through the Gulf of Aden have been forced to pay higher insurance premiums in order to receive basic insurance cover. This has inevitably caused an international rift between insurers and shipping companies who feel that the insurers are using the piracy scare as a method of generating more revenue from what is already a costly and heavily recession hit industry. Since the majority of the worlds consumer goods are transported by sea, the hike in insurance premiums for the shipping companies will be passed on to their clients who will in turn pass it on to their customers. This is already happening in most of the worlds developed economies as the consequences of Somali piracy is been bitterly felt through a rise in food and fuel prices. In addition to this, neighbouring East African Countries such as Kenya where just over a million Refugee Somali nationals live, the proceeds of piracy has lead to a sharp rise in property prices and land costs for ordinary citizens as pirates use their ill gotten gains quickly to buy land and commodities before they are captured.

The pirates have argued unconvincingly that their main motivation comes from a need to protect Somalia’s waters against illegal fishing and dumping of waste from foreign vessels. Whilst this may have been true at first and could have attracted support from international environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, it has proven to be a very feeble justification as a result of the extortionate ransom demands made by the pirates. The fact is that most of these pirates are nothing more than common criminals and gangsters who use their knowledge of the sea to make trade difficult for the rest of the world.

The impact of these pirate’s criminal activities is been felt socially and politically by the Somali community in the Diaspora who the western right wing press immediately blame for their activities. Peaceful, law abiding Somalis who already are politically and socially marginalised by poverty, racism and social exclusion are now in most parts of the Western world, been used as scapegoats for the crimes of greedy thugs who they have never met or have any relations with. At a Somali cafe in Bristol many made their feelings clear. “I do not know who they are but these pirates seem to be making life difficult for us at school,” a young secondary school student said. “I hope they realise that their actions are leading to some of us Somali students in Bristol been bullied and taunted.” A father of four jumped in and added, “I do not feel safe letting my children play outside anymore because I am afraid that they may get into fights with other non Somali children. With every pirate attack we lose strength as a community and we are more open to attack from the general public who seem to think we are robbing them of their benefits in the UK and robbing them of their trade in the sea.” With Britain experiencing one of the greatest economic downturns in the country’s history and a huge shortage in social housing and school places, the Somali community is already been blamed for creating a huge pressure on the public purse without contributing anything of value to the British economy and society. The painful consequences of Somali piracy in East Africa has been to further add to the stigmatisation and marginalisation of a Somali Community already facing great difficulties and prejudice in the West.

Of course one sympathises with the poverty faced by Somali’s living in the war torn Country but what they are doing is absolutely wrong. The real enemies of the Somali people are not the multinational vessels carrying millions of dollars worth of goods or the poor private amateur sailors wanting to see the world in their yachts but the many failed Somali governments who, had they been functioning properly, would have been able to collect taxes from the users of their territorial waters as well as grant fishing permits to those who were willing to pay a fair price for them.

Tougher international action is needed against Somali Pirates in order to make the seas safe again but sea patrols by international navies is not enough as this will only artificially delay the solving of this piracy epidemic of the Somali coast.

Piracy and its damaging threats can only realistically be eliminated by addressing its root causes which are poverty and state failure on the in land. Furthermore, in line with the European Parliament recommendation, an independent investigation into war crimes and human rights violations in Somalia need to be carried out to bring closure to those who feel that they have been wronged by successive but equally poor governments of Somalia and to bring the perpetrators of misery, abuse and corruption which might have lead to the piracy epidemic, to justice.

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EU navy to expand anti-piracy mission

7th Dec 2009

The European Union will consider expanding its anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia as pirates along one of the world's most heavily used sea corridors venture farther south to attack commercial vessels.

The EU's mission off the Horn of Africa won't diverge from its objectives, though officials may agree on changes, EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana told reporters after a meeting of the bloc's defense ministers in Brussels.

"If the pirates will move south, we'll have to see if some adaptation can be done," Solana said.

The EU force, currently eight warships and four surveillance planes supplied by eight countries, has been operating off Somalia since December 2008 to protect commercial trade. EU governments are also considering sending at least 100 police experts to train about 2,000 members of the Somali security forces.

Pirate attacks worldwide this year have exceeded the total for 2008 following the surge in incidents off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The number of assaults off the Horn of Africa nation more than tripled to 47 from 12 in the same period a year earlier, the bureau said Oct. 21.

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Seizure of large tanker fuels piracy war

7th Dec 2009

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'Ransom deal blocked' for Somali hostages Paul and Rachel Chandler

6th Dec 2009

A British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates six weeks ago were on the verge of being freed for a £100,000 ransom when the government blocked the deal, the Observer can reveal.

The money to release Paul and Rachel Chandler, taken hostage from their yacht on 23 October, had been agreed by a British negotiator two weeks ago. Foreign Office officials rejected the breakthrough, saying that they would not allow payments to hostage-takers.

The disclosure will increase the anguish for relatives of the Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, after concern that Britain's policy of not talking to kidnappers will endanger their lives.

Nick Davis, who negotiated the deal, yesterday accused the Foreign Office of playing "stupid games" after revealing how the Chandlers' captors had agreed to an offer that would have released the couple at a fraction of the £4.3m ransom previously demanded.

Davis, chairman of the industry anti-piracy organisation, the Merchant Maritime Warfare Centre (MMWC), accused the government of pursuing a flawed diplomatic strategy that could imperil the couple. The centre was set up last year to educate the shipping trade in anti-piracy measures and is funded by industry groups and insurers.

Davis said: "We could have had the Chandlers out weeks ago. The money was available, the pirates were keen to let them go, it was just a case of pushing the button. It was all ready to go. The pirates don't want to keep the Chandlers any longer. It's not good for them either.

"A figure of £100,000 had been agreed and put in place. It's still ready the second that I get given the nod. Then I can get them out and we can release the funds and get it to [the pirates]."

The Chandlers have been held captive for 45 days in Somalia. They were sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania as part of a round-the-world tour when their 38ft yacht, Lynn Rival, was boarded by gunmen while they slept.

Davis said he had decided to go public because of his frustration at the negotiations and because of contacts from Somalia suggesting that Rachel Chandler, who is 55 and a retired economist, was becoming extremely frail. Her health was under pressure, he said, from constant shuttling between safe houses around the Somalian port town of Haradheere, to prevent the pair being caught by armed Islamist cells. "She can't cope with this. She's very weak and deteriorating; she's in a bad way and we need to get her home," he said.

The deal was agreed on 21-22 November but, according to Davis, fell through because the Foreign Office would not deviate from its policy of not paying hijackers nor would it communicate the breakthrough to relatives of the Chandlers in the UK. "The fact that professionals can affect their release should be clearly articulated to the family of the Chandlers so they can decide whether to support it," he said.

Davis, who has visited pirate contacts in Haradheere four times in the past two years, said concern was mounting over the government's policy of negotiating the Chandlers' release through middlemen, and that the "third-party" individuals involved seemed incapable of delivering a settlement.

A Foreign Office source said it had had little contact with the couple since they appeared on a video link two weeks ago.

Davis said: "We're in a situation where the people that can effect a release are being effectively blocked by diplomatic efforts because they [the British government] are just playing another game, that's the problem. There are secret games, just stupid games going on with the government diplomatically that does not work in the families' favour."

His exasperation corroborates the frustration of experienced Scotland Yard hostage negotiators from SCD7 command, who are also involved in the Chandler negotiations. Met sources have indicated frustration at lack of progress, with one source saying that an opportunity to secure release was "missed early on".

The revelations will intensify scrutiny of the government's "hands-off" policy of refusing to talk directly with kidnappers or terrorists. The approach was criticised during attempts to five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad two years ago, a strategy that left UK officials reliant on mediators and has not prevented four of the five hostages being killed.

Last night Mrs Chandler's brother, Stephen Collett, and Mr Chandler's sister, Jill Marshment, refused to comment on the revelations.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We do not discuss operational details in cases like this. We are using our contacts in the region to gain information and bring influence to bear on the hostage-takers. We will talk to anyone who may be able to help secure their release, but we do not make substantive concessions to hostage-takers."

Davis said: "There is a political agenda that's far removed from what the public think is the right and respectful thing to do as regards the Chandlers. Let's get it resolved and make sure the government looks like it's won at the end of the day. They need to let us speak to the right people and get the Chandlers out of there, or do they want to keep it a secret squirrel society?"

The £100,000 deal was struck shortly after the Chandlers appeared in a video broadcast on 20 November and appealed directly to the British government to open talks for their release. The footage shows the couple looking thin and fatigued, with Mr Chandler, a 59-year-old retired quantity surveyor, pleading for the government to start negotiating over a ransom and saying they might otherwise be killed within a week.

Davis said the pirates were extremely keen to strike a deal, but increasingly "fed up" over the lack of a settlement. He said the ransom fee was ready to be released instantly and had been raised through the advance sale of media rights, such as book deals and interview rights.

News of the deal coincides with fresh concerns over the protection of shipping routes off the coast of Somalia. Britain's private security industry is debating having officials routinely employed on all shipping routes off Somalia. Davis's organisation even has a contract with Yemen's navy to provide armed escorts for vessels crossing the Gulf of Aden.

At least six UK private security firms are operating off Somalia, employing former personnel of the Special Boat Service, the Royal Marines landing craft squadron and the Royal Navy. So profound is the threat of piracy that deployment to the Gulf of Aden has become the industry's new growth area.

A source at the British Association of Private Security Companies said: "Demand in Iraq has gone down, Afghanistan never took off to the extent people expected – but Somalia is booming."

More than 168 incidents of piracy were reported off Somalia in the first nine months of 2009 compared with 111 in all of 2008, according to Lord Jopling, a Nato special adviser on piracy. More than 500 hostages have been taken in 2009 so far, of whom 150 are still held by the pirates.

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Somalia's new order: filthy rich pirates

6th Dec 2009

A parcel of land here that sold for $US12,000 ($A12,900) two years ago now costs more than $US20,000 ($A21,500). The price of a nice pair of men's shoes has gone up from $20 to $50.

The reason: pirates.

The influx of millions of dollars in ransoms has changed life in this coastal Muslim community, driving prices up and creating a schism between the pirate haves and have-nots.

As piracy ramps up again with the end of the monsoon season, the lifestyle of the pirates - big houses, fast cars and easy drugs - is decried by both religious leaders and ordinary villagers.

"The use of drugs such as cannabis and the drinking of alcohol, sex and other obnoxious misconduct are now becoming common within the pirates, causing social problems," said Sheik Ahmed, a mosque leader in the town of Galkayo. "That is what is worrying us, a lot more than the risk they pose to the foreign ships and crew."

Just last month, pirates were paid a reported $3.3 million to release 36 crew members from a Spanish vessel held hostage for more than six weeks. Pirates stand to make tens of thousands from the payment, money that will pulse through the community in gifts, loans and payments to family, friends and businesses.

The European Union Naval Force says pirates now hold 11 ships and 264 crew members hostage off the coast of Somalia. There is little doubt that more ransom money is coming.

"There is mad money circulating here, and it affects everybody directly or indirectly," said Haji Said, a hotel owner.

A lone paved road passes through the middle of Bossaso, and hotels, businesses and new construction line its sides. SUVs and luxury vehicles from Asia ply the road with American, Somali and Indian music blasting from within.

The price of clothes, shoes and cosmetics is climbing, said Anshur Kamil, a businessman. Pirates do not even have to pay upfront. Those holding ships hostage who have not yet received ransom can buy goods on credit, at elevated prices, and settle up their debts when the ransom money comes in, villagers say.

The pirates pay in dollars and do not bother to haggle, said Khadra Abdullahi, a shop owner in Bossaso, a coastal town on the northern edge of Somalia across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. "Sometimes they leave change behind, which shows that money is nothing to them."

When villagers think the price of a cosmetic is too high, their reply is "we are not pirates," said Abdullahi.

The closer to the pirate dens one gets, the higher the prices go. In the nearby town of Eyl, a cup of tea costs three times as much as in Bossaso. In Eyl, pirates pay $5 for a shoeshine, compared with 50 cents in Bossaso, said Hashim Salad, a store owner.

Two years ago, a teenager named Adani lived on the streets of Bossaso. Now, at only 19 years old, he is a pirate and owns a big house and large truck. He says he has taken part in two hijackings that earned him $75,000 and plans to participate in one more high-seas heist.

"When you have nothing, people despise you, and if they see that you have money, you will be respected," said Adani, who gave only one name for fear of reprisals. "This next job will be my last in the piracy trade. I know it's a big risk but I believe in gambling. If I win, I will get married and give up piracy."

Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the average ransom has risen from roughly $1 million last year to $2 million this year. He said pirates have been paid more than $100 million in the last two years, although he stressed that the number was an estimate only. No one has hard figures.

"I'm sure there's some resentment at the way pirates behave and the lifestyle they lead. It's not a traditional or righteous one," Middleton said.

Middleton also noted that pirate foot soldiers make not millions, but tens of thousands over a year. The big money goes to the bosses, he said, and they are likely to spend it overseas or invest it.

Clerics and village elders say they do not approve of the pirate lifestyle. Teenagers threaten their parents that they will join the pirates if they do not get their way, said a prominent Bossaso elder, Suldan Mohamud Aw-nor.

Marriage has also been affected by pirates with pockets full of cash. Hundreds of cars escort the bride and groom to the reception, where the house is crammed with expensive furniture, and the bride wears expensive gold jewelry, said Shamso Ahmed, the owner of a beauty salon. Thousands of dollars are paid to brides' families as a dowry.

"Pirates do not waste time to woo women, but instead pay them a lot," said Sahro Mohamed. "They did this to several girls I know."

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Hijacked Greek ship enters pirates' haven

4th Dec 2009

Nairobi/London - A massive Greek oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean has reached the Somali coastline, the European Union's anti-piracy mission off Somalia said on Wednesday.

The Greek-flagged MV Maran Centaurus, capable of carrying 300 000 tons, is the second-largest ship to be seized in the pirate-infested waters off lawless Somalia.

EU NAVFOR said in a statement that the ship, which was seized 600 nautical miles north-east of the Seychelles on Sunday, was now at anchor close to the pirate haven of Hobyo.

It was not clear how many barrels of crude oil the ship was carrying when it and its crew of 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, one Romanian and two Ukrainians were seized.
 

But it was headed from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to the US and was believed to be carrying close to its capacity, meaning the cargo would be worth in the vicinity of $150-million.

The largest ship to be seized - Saudi tanker Sirius Star, which was carrying 2 million barrels of oil worth around $100 million at the time - was released late last year after a ransom of $3-million was paid to the pirates.

The seizure of the Sirius Star, taken during a huge upswing in piracy, helped prompt the deployment of over a dozen international warships to the Gulf of Aden - one of the world's busiest waterways - to combat the piracy.

However, the pirates have simply moved their operations further out into the Indian Ocean to avoid patrols and the number of attacks in 2009 so far is almost double the 2008 figure, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

An IMB official in London told the German Press Agency dpa that as of November 30 there had been been a total of 204 attacks by suspected Somali pirates. Of those attacks, 42 were successful.

Some eleven ships, and over 200 crew members, are still in pirate hands.

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Maersk Alabama — Another Attempt of Piracy Attack

19th November 2009

The ship was once again targeted by pirates while sailing off Somalia’s coast. Four men who were reportedly aboard a skiff fired automatic weapons while speeding within 300 yards of the vessel with the intention to board it. Information was provided by the United States Navy Fleet.

There were no Navy SEALs this time, however. Instead, the ship evaded attackers through the assistance of a security team that was on board the ship at that time, provided by a private contractor. The security detail reportedly fired back and was successfully able to fend off its attackers.

The incident happened last Tuesday morning, and on Wednesday, a U.S. P-3 surveillance aircraft was able to establish communications with the ship captain, who reported that everyone aboard was safe. The Maersk Alabama is on its way to its next destination, or port of call.

Safety in the high seas for private organizations is definitely a concern; it can be tricky business to ensure safety from pirates. Based on what we have seen and read about thus far, there seems to be a need for military skills to ensure safety when plying these sea routes. But then, it does not seem all that logical for the maritime military forces of any country with interests traveling along these routes to provide military detail. How far can private contractors go in providing security to these vessels? What will armed private security detail in the high seas be accountable for?

The questions seem to be endless, and the ideal – the disappearance of piracy – seems far-fetched. We certainly hope that an effective strategy is developed soon, in order to ensure the safety of all seafarers. The audacity of the pirates in these routes are certainly rather disconcerting.

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Somali pirate ransoms 'could fund terrorists'

4th November 2009

A senior Nato adviser on piracy has criticised the government for failing to investigate adequately whether ransom payments to Somali pirates fund Islamist groups including al-Qaida.

Lord Jopling, who also wrote a report into money laundering and terrorism for the House of Lords, has warned that paying off pirates could encourage terrorist groups into further acts of piracy. His comments come after the demand for $7m (£4.2m) for the safe return of Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British couple taken hostage nine days ago as they travelled from the Seychelles to Tanzania.

Almost 300 pirate attacks were logged worldwide in 2008 alone. At present, British law allows ship owners to pay ransoms for the release of hijacked vessels. But if the government established a link between the pirates and terrorist groups, the payment of ransoms would be considered as funding terrorism and be banned by law.

Jopling, the author of the Nato report The Growing Threat Of Piracy, said that many people suspect terrorist groups are behind the capture of dozens of ships off the Horn of Africa. He called on the government to put "more effort" into finding out whether there is a link to terrorism. "There is as yet no evidence that money goes to terrorists, but given all of the rumours that al-Qaida has active cells in Somalia, it would not be of huge surprise if there is a connection there.

We will not find out until the government takes the initiative with other interested states to find out and look at the magnitude of the sums involved and where the money is going. It is of concern."

The Home Office promised in June to investigate possible links between pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Somali terrorist movements such as Al-Shabab, widely thought to be part of al-Qaida. In July, the House of Lords' European Union committee published a report on terrorism funding that voiced concern over the lack of information about a pirate-terrorist connection. In Washington, the Treasury Department asked the Office of Foreign Assets Control to investigate how Al-Shabab is financed. The initiatives have stirred some concern in the City, headquarters of London's leading law firms and maritime insurance groups. Ship owners who pay ransoms that are reimbursed by insurance groups are not obliged to file a suspicious activity report with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency. This summer the Lords sought to change the law by authorising courts to start proceedings against companies paying ransoms without telling the British authorities.

But the Home Office said in a response to the Lords report last month "it isn't up to the government" to issue rules on suspicious activity reports. The empty yacht belonging to the Chandlers, who are from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was found during counter-piracy operations. The couple are being held on the Kota Wajar container ship, which is registered in Singapore and owned by one of the world's largest shipping companies, Pacific International Lines.

The company is believed to be talking to the pirates to negotiate a ransom that will include the Kota Wajar, which has also been seized by the pirates, and its crew as well as the Chandlers. The ransom demand for the return of the couple was made on Friday in a call to the BBC in which the pirates' representative blamed Nato operations in the area for destroying the local economy. "Nato operations have destroyed a lot of equipment belonging to poor fishermen... they illegally transfer the fishermen to their own prisons and prisons of other [foreign] countries."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed it had employed a negotiator and said: "We are aware of reports that a ransom demand of $7m has been made. HMG's policy remains clear: We will not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, including the payment of ransoms." The brother of Rachel Chandler, Stephen Collett, told the Observer the Foreign Office was doing an "excellent" job.

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China sends anti-piracy navy convoy: state media

4th November 2009

BEIJING — China sent a fresh naval flotilla to the Gulf of Aden to protect vessels from Somali pirates, state media reported Friday, just 10 days after a Chinese cargo ship was hijacked by armed bandits. The flotilla included two missile frigates that would relieve two Chinese frigates currently patrolling pirate-ridden shipping lanes in the gulf, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy flotilla was the fourth task force that China has sent to the region since the end of last year, Xinhua reported. Last week the Chinese coal-carrying vessel De Xin Hai was seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean northeast of the Seychelles with 25 crew members on board, prompting China to vow to rescue the vessel and crew. The two frigates will join a supply ship that has been on duty in the area for about three months, Xinhua reported. In total, the convoy will boast a crew of more than 700, including a special forces unit, and will be equipped with two shipborne helicopters, the unnamed spokesman was quoted as saying.

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