Fred OluochNairobi
The hijacking of MV Rozen by pirates off the coast of Somalia is the latest in a series of hijackings that have been going on for years since Somalia became stateless in 1991.
The ship was on its way to Kenya after offloading 1,800 tonnes of maize, rice and vegetables, when pirates stuck at Ras Shuful off the Somali coast.
The crew of six Kenyans and six Sri Lankans had delivered cargo to different ports on behalf of the World Food Programme.
Though the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is struggling to restore civil authority in Somalia, pirates continue to operate off the Somalia coast with impunity. Cases of piracy on the coast increased sharply in 2005, when a total of 48 vessels were attacked and 35 detained with crew and cargo.
Indeed, Somali waters are currently the most dangerous in the world, forcing some shippers to withdraw their operations from the region, while the few that continue plying the route do so at a high risk.
Yet, the route remains important for the region and the global sea trade. Piracy in the area is also encouraged by illegal fishing, which is extremely lucrative given that there is no government in place to monitor deep-sea fishing.
In March last year, a suspected pirate was killed when a group tried to attack a US navy ship off the coast of Somalia.
Various attempts by countries in the region to come up with anti-piracy measures have done little to stamp out the menace in Somali waters.
For example, 10 Somali pirates were last November jailed for seven years each after a trial in Kenya.
The hijacking of MV Rozen by pirates off the coast of Somalia is the latest in a series of hijackings that have been going on for years since Somalia became stateless in 1991.
The ship was on its way to Kenya after offloading 1,800 tonnes of maize, rice and vegetables, when pirates stuck at Ras Shuful off the Somali coast.
The crew of six Kenyans and six Sri Lankans had delivered cargo to different ports on behalf of the World Food Programme.
Though the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is struggling to restore civil authority in Somalia, pirates continue to operate off the Somalia coast with impunity. Cases of piracy on the coast increased sharply in 2005, when a total of 48 vessels were attacked and 35 detained with crew and cargo.
Indeed, Somali waters are currently the most dangerous in the world, forcing some shippers to withdraw their operations from the region, while the few that continue plying the route do so at a high risk.
Yet, the route remains important for the region and the global sea trade. Piracy in the area is also encouraged by illegal fishing, which is extremely lucrative given that there is no government in place to monitor deep-sea fishing.
In March last year, a suspected pirate was killed when a group tried to attack a US navy ship off the coast of Somalia.
Various attempts by countries in the region to come up with anti-piracy measures have done little to stamp out the menace in Somali waters.
For example, 10 Somali pirates were last November jailed for seven years each after a trial in Kenya.
In February last year, various countries from the region and observers from the UK, the US, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, converged on Mombasa to brainstorm on how to curb piracy and armed raids on ships in the Somali waters.
However, a full-fledged monitoring programme was found to be too costly for the struggling economies of the region.
Again, an attempt by the TFG to contract a private security firm to combat persistent insecurity along Somalia's 2,000 km coastline was met with controversy when critics argued that Top Cat marine Security of the US, did not have the capacity to carry out such an operation. TFG had signed a $55 million agreement with Top Cat to tackle piracy in the Horn of Africa.
However, a full-fledged monitoring programme was found to be too costly for the struggling economies of the region.
Again, an attempt by the TFG to contract a private security firm to combat persistent insecurity along Somalia's 2,000 km coastline was met with controversy when critics argued that Top Cat marine Security of the US, did not have the capacity to carry out such an operation. TFG had signed a $55 million agreement with Top Cat to tackle piracy in the Horn of Africa.
2 comments:
It is scary to think about pirates in the present day. Especially because modern day pirates use automatic weapons and fast speedboats to board vessels, these unarmed ships that sail threw regions like Somalia, done stand a chance. It is nice to see the US stepping up, because this should not be taking place at the present time, and hopefully this new program will make these water safer in the near future.
US will never do anything to somalia, they still mourning their defeat in 93, when their special force equipped with the best army and helicopters at that era were defeated by somalis
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