POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Mar 17, 2024 : After almost six years, the pirates of Somalia have raised their heads again.
Earlier, there have been several incidents of hostage-taking and ransoming of sailors by attacking ships one after the other in the region.
In view of this, various international parties have united in anti-piracy operations.
As a result, pirate attacks have been significantly reduced.
But at least 14 ship hijackings in the past few months have raised concerns about maritime security in the Horn of Africa region.
The question is, why can’t the pirates of Somalia be stopped?
Horn of Africa
A part of East Africa is called ‘Horn of Africa’.
The region is so named because of its triangular geographical map. It is also called ‘Somali Peninsula’.
It is an important point of global trade by sea.
And Somalia occupies a large part of the “Horn of Africa”.
The country’s protracted war and economic woes and the lack of a strong administrative presence to protect the coast have led to increased vandalism in the region.
Especially taking advantage of the absence of government forces to secure the waters for a long time, the presence of foreign fishing boats increased there.
As a result, local fishermen are facing losses.
As a result, local fishermen divided into armed groups to stop the exploitation of foreigners in the sea area of Somalia and tried to stop the entry of foreign ships in that area.
But many young Somalis turned to piracy after receiving ransom money obtained by hijacking foreign ships.
Attacks have increased
About 20,000 commercial vessels ply the Gulf of Aden route from Somalia to Yemen annually.
The Suez Canal is the fastest route from Asia to Europe and America.
As a result, ship owners naturally choose this route to transport goods.
But there is a problem with Somali pirates.
According to data from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the number of hostage-taking of ships and sailors in the ‘Horn of Africa’ has increased in the past three months compared to any time in the past six years.
Somalia’s poverty, anarchy, lack of rule of law, on the one hand, and the instability and violence caused by the civil war, on the other hand, have led many of the country’s youth to turn to piracy.
And there are allegations of the involvement of local elites in Somalia.
Somali local elites are also alleged to be involved in piracy.
They encourage this work especially when they need money for regional defense or regional election campaigns against other groups or Islamic militias.
Also, according to the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), a regional body comprising countries in East African waters, the new fishing policy in Somalia has increased the entry of foreign fishing vessels.
And as a result, coastal Somalis once again turn to piracy, the IOC said.
The agency also speculates that the Islamist militant Somalia-based al-Shabaab group has increased the number of pirate attacks in Somali waters.
They believe the group receives a share of the ransom in exchange for protecting the attackers through the deal.
Moreover, the Houthi offensive in the Red Sea is also a major reason why most of the naval security has moved to the region.
Troels Burchal Henningsen, associate professor at the Royal Danish Defense College, told the BBC that ship attacks off the coast of Somalia have created opportunities for hijackers due to a lack of security.
International forces began patrolling these waters from 2005 to 2012 due to increased piracy.
But recent attacks by Yemen’s rebel group, the Houthis, have put more emphasis on the Red Sea, he said.
Due to which Somali pirates are unstoppable
Two and a half million square miles of ocean in the E region are vulnerable to piracy.
Somali pirates usually come in small speedboats and climb aboard using ropes and ladders and hold the ship’s sailors hostage.
And with no coast guard or strong police presence, these armed pirates can anchor ships holding hostages off the coast of Somalia almost unimpeded.
Gilles Merritt gave an interview to NBC News in 2008.
At that time, he was the director of the Brussels-based think tank Security and Defense Agenda.
“It’s incredible to me that we can fly aircraft that can detect anything that’s moving,” Gilles said.
But obviously we don’t see some young men with machine guns in small boats”.
NATO and the US Navy say their radars pick up pirate patrols and alert ship crews.
But the Aden Peninsula area from the Indian Ocean is vast.
As a result, warships cannot protect every vessel, and it is not always possible to be there immediately after an incident.
Again, it is not enough for the pirates to see a speedboat or identify its location. According to military officials, two and a half million square miles of sea are prone to piracy, making it virtually impossible to fully patrol.
Pirates also use large ‘mother ships’.
Using this they attack from small boats in the middle of the sea.
The problem is that these big ships are also basically hijacked.
As a result, they look like any other fishing boat. Which makes it almost impossible to spot a rogue ship among the thousands of boats plying the sea.
Besides, if the control of the ship is in the hands of the pirates, it becomes difficult to take any action.
Because the lives of hostage sailors are at risk.
And these pirates are trained.
They have heavy weapons and grenades with them.
How did piracy decrease?
According to maritime security firm Dryad Global, the shipping zone from the Horn of Africa coast to the Indian coast is considered ‘high risk’.
25 countries have navies in the region, but compared to its vast size, this number is not sufficient for safe navigation. Using small boat-like ‘skiffs’, ladders and a few weapons, Somali pirates hijack huge cargo ships. At the same time, the crew of the ship was held hostage and a ransom of millions of dollars was collected.
The region saw the highest number of attacks in 212 in 2011.
From 2005 to 2012, the World Bank estimated the amount of money pirates in the Horn of Africa have collected.
According to that estimate, the pirates extorted between three and a half to four hundred million US dollars by holding the crew hostage.
According to a 2013 World Bank report, piracy costs the world economy about 18 billion dollars or 1,800 crore rupees annually.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed seven resolutions to stop Somali piracy, allowing foreign aircraft and navies to enter and patrol Somali waters.
At the same time, the US-led task force and the European Union’s naval Operation Atalanta were authorized to use ‘the necessary measures to combat piracy and armed robbery at sea’.
After a peak of 212 attacks in 2011, piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia have almost stopped in recent years.
And collective steps were taken to do that.
A report published in the Australian non-profit media network ‘The Conversation’ cited four reasons for stopping pirates at the time.
These are-
1.Conducting and coordinating various anti-piracy operations by the world’s most capable navies, including five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council
2.Implementation of expensive self-defense systems
3.Development of legal system to prosecute and imprison pirates and
4.Capturing pirates as a result of increased territorial capacity
According to experts, a large part of this success in stopping pirates was on land.Piracy has declined due to international efforts such as US airstrikes in conjunction with African Union military forces on the ground to target Al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia.
As part of the African Union mission in Somalia, Kenyan troops seized the port of Kismayo in 2012 and chased al-Shabaab fighters.
Meanwhile, the fort from which the pirates used to operate was also removed.
At the same time, some conservative Somali groups also resented the pirate network. Others could not accept the sudden supremacy of one group, relying not on tradition or religion but on weapons and robbery.
As a result, the bandits naturally began to lose power.
However, after six years, the incidence of piracy is increasing again.
According to an annual report by the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) on piracy and armed robbery, there were 120 incidents of piracy and armed robbery in 2023.
In 2022 this number was 115.
