Anarchy in the Sea: A Look at modern-day piracy on the waters of Somali Coastline

Members of a ship released by Somali pirates wave to the people soon after docking on the Kenyan port of Mombasa following months of captivity by Somali gunmen. Somalia coastline is considered among the top most dangerous in the world.


ClOSE to two decades, Somalia has been synonymous with insecurity and anarchy reigns supreme in country where the Central Government exudes little influence if any.

The result of such vacuum has bred fundamental Islamists armed for a “Jihad”, warlords thirsty for cash from unregulated but booming commercial sector and clan leaders out of touch with modernity and civility of any kind.

Of the ills that have come to characterize Somalia, piracy seems to be the one that is dominating the country’s news, at least, from 1999. Heavily armed gunmen have violently seized one ship after another and in some instances even used a captured ship to hijack a second one, a true indication of lawlessness that goes untamed.

Piracy on the Somali seas has reached alarming proportions, analysts say. But the weak Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) based in the provisional town of Baidoa and attempting to take control of the capital Mogadishu can do very little on the matter. The country’s Prime Minister Prof. Ali Mohammed Ghedi has even come out in public and advised members of international community to “try and avoid the waters of Somalia”.

In 2005, Somalia recorded a steep rise in piracy along its 2,000-mile coastline, with 15 violent incidents reported between March and August, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a division of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) that tracks trends in piracy.

The Horn of Africa’s Coast Guard disintegrated with the Government when clan-based warlords overthrew Marxist dictator-President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 after which moneyed warlords turned on each other, plunging the country of 7 million into chaos.

"The main problem we are having is that we don't have the mechanism, the logistics and resources to patrol the coastline. We are calling on the international community for funding and materials so that we can train a coast guard,” Ghedi was recently quoted to have told the Somali press.

In most of he cases reported, the gunmen normally ask for a hefty ransom but immediately the cash is paid, the hijackers renege on the ‘agreement’ and demand a bigger share. It is money the pirates are after, ransom from the ship-owners, either for themselves or to help finance the array of clan-based militias on land.

Most of the hired ship belongs to a Mombasa-based tycoon, Abdulkarim Kudrati.

In 2005 for instance, gunmen who had held a United Nations (UN)-chartered ship and its crew hostage for nearly three months captured a second vessel carrying cement from Egypt as they left El Maan, a port north of Somalia's capital of Mogadishu. ‘Local authorities’ had negotiated their departure from the port just for the hijackers to raise fresh ransom demands and refused to meet a deadline to release the ship, its crew and cargo. During the episode, the family, relatives and the owners of the ship had to wait with baited breath for a record 90 days for the ordeal to be over.

According to the data from the maritime authority, the U.N.-chartered ship was carrying 935 tonnes of rice donated by Japan and Germany for 28,000 Somalis who had been affected by the Asian tsunami, whose force was powerful enough to inundate parts of Somalia. The gunmen boarded the MV Semlow, registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on June 27, had it first kept near Haradheere before proceeding to the busy El Maan port.

Shortly after the ordeal, pirates south of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, took another ship carrying UN food aid. The ship, the Miltzow, was held for three days, prompting officials at the WFP to begin transporting food to needy communities in Somalia by truck, which carries its own risks.

Days later, a Bahamian-registered cruise ship carrying 302 passengers and crew members was about 100 miles from Somalia when it was forced to take evasive action to escape pirates firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

Another group of Somali gunmen similarly held 48 Asian fishermen and three vessels near the southern Somali port of Kismayo in august 2005.

Still in the same year, a ship MV Torgelow returned to her home port in Mombasa, Kenya after being held for 53 days by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The cargo ship, which was carrying relief supplies to Somalia, was one of 33 vessels that reported to have been attacked and hijacked by pirates. The large cargo ship, half a football field long, was en route to Somalia to resupply one of its sister ships, the MV Semlow, which had just been released after being held for 101 days by pirates. The Semlow had been carrying relief supplies to Somalia for the WFP.

In another incidence, a Thai merchant vessel and its crew of 26 were hijacked by pirates off the Somali coastline at gunpoint and their captors immediately demanded a ransom before the ship could be released. The merchant ship was en-route from Brazil to Yemen with a cargo of sugar.

A week earlier, US-owned cruise ship had been attacked with rocket propelled grenades in space of a week.

Last year, a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-flagged ship MV Veesham I went missing for days before it was traced by fighters of the Union of Islamic Courts along the coastal District of Haradheere in central Somalia which has been notorious for groups of heavily armed pirates. The Islamists boarded the ship and vehemently overpowered the eight pirates equipped with automatic weapons onboard, securing the ship and saving all 14 crew members and their Ethiopian captain. The hijacked ship was stranded at the Indian Ocean for seven days following $150,000 (Ksh10 million) ransom demanded by the hijackers.

Owners of the vessel asked US anti-terror task forces based in Indian Ocean to track down the ship. The ship was hijacked from El Maan port in north Mogadishu as she was being loaded with charcoal which was being exported to Emirates. On it was a Somali Businessman, an Indian crew and an Ethiopian captain.

By 1999, Somalia was ranked the sixth most dangerous place for shipping worldwide, along with Nigeria but the situation worsened in 2000 making Somali coastline the most-dangerous in the world in a nation whereby real authority lies in the hands of local militia leaders

Somalia is rated alongside Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, considered the most dangerous spots for piracy worldwide. By then, Indonesia, with 113 reported was the most dangerous place for shipping worldwide.

Incidences

The statistics for the first six months of 2006 showed that the recent decline in piracy attacks worldwide had slowed. The figures appeared in the Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships Report issued International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

In its report for the second quarter of 2006, IMB discloses that in 2006:

• 127 attacks have took place on ships;
• 74 ships were boarded by pirates;
• 11 ships were hijacked;
• 156 crew were taken hostage;
• 13 crew were kidnapped and six crew killed

Although the total number of attacks for the first half of 2006 remains the same compared to the same period for 2005, IMB is concerned that the situation has deteriorated in key hot spots.

The Eastern and North-Eastern coasts of Somalia continue to be high-risk areas for hijackings. Eight attacks by pirates wielding guns and grenades have been reported off the Eastern coast of Somalia so far this year.

IMB warns that ships not making scheduled calls to ports in these areas should stay at least 200 miles or as far away as practical from the Somali coast. And even that does not mean they are safe. Some hijackings and attempted hijackings have taken place as far as 400 miles offshore.

The highest number of reported piracy incidents during the first six months of 2006 occurred in Indonesia, where violence and intimidation of crew continues to be a hallmark of attacks. The report indicates that Bangladesh - with 22 recorded attacks on ships - is an emerging piracy hot spot.

Fighting the menace

Combating piracy is challenging, given the extensive coastline of Somalia, the longest in Africa at roughly 2,000 miles. At El Maan, Somalia's busiest port, local businessmen have begun their own anti-piracy patrols - small boats with gunmen aboard to escort commercial vehicles. But sometimes it is hard to determine which groups professing to fight piracy are actually engaged in it.

The pirates adopt names like the National Volunteer Coast Guard (NVCG), which is used by a group that intercepts small boats and fishing vessels in southern Somalia. Another of the four main piracy groups along the coast calls itself the Somali Marines (SM). Organized like a military unit, with admirals, vice admirals and the like, the group operates around Mogadishu.

Recently, though, the pirates have found themselves outgunned by a new foe - the United States (US) Navy. In January this year, the Navy received a report of an attempted hijacking far off the Somali coast. Using surveillance, the Navy focused on Al Bisarat, an Indian vessel that had been secretly taken over by pirates several days before and was being used as a mother ship for additional attacks. After tracking Al Bisarat overnight and failing to make radio contact, the American destroyer Winston S. Churchill fired warning shots at the vessel, prompting it to stop.

After a three-hour standoff, the pirates gave up. The hijackers released the two ships just over two weeks after they had reneged on an agreement between community leaders speaking on behalf of the pirates, WFP and TFG release of the Semlow, its cargo and crew in El Maan. The pirates made new ransom demands and sailed back to Haradheere.

Operations continue

Despite the challenging situation on the ground, WFP aims to provide one million people in Somalia with food in 2005. These include 50,000 people in the central regions of Somalia – as well as to the Tsunami survivors in Puntland.

The terrain has been rough for the UN relief agency, making it unable to get food into Somalia by sea for weeks. In the end, the WFP resorted to using a truck convoy, which had to pass through dozens of road blocks manned by various militias who normally demand a ‘toll tax’ before one is allowed passage.

Trained fighters

A Hong Kong-based company that owns Feisty Gas, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker that was seized on April 10, 2005 and paid $315 000 (Ksh22 million) to a representative of the Somali hijackers in Mombasa, Kenya, according to a recent UN report.

Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades. The bandits target both passenger and cargo vessels for ransom or loot, using the money to buy weapons.

Somaliland

It has experienced a level of stability that has not been present in other parts of Somalia. However, terrorist attacks occurred against international relief workers, including Westerners, throughout Somalia and Somaliland in late 2003 through early 2004, which resulted in a number of murders.

In early 2006 an American citizen working in southern Somalia was kidnapped and held for ransom. But there have not been any case of piracy along Somaliland, thanks to security operations by the local administration that is still attempting to get international recognition, 15 years after seceding from the rest of Somalia.

Nevertheless, in the other regions of Somalia there is no organized system of criminal justice, nor is there any recognized or established authority to administer a uniform application of due process. Enforcement of criminal laws is, therefore, haphazard to nonexistent. Piracy cases therefore go unpunished.

Ends…