Somalia: Why piracy will not end soon
By Peter Omondi
For the last 20 years, the lawless Somalia has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the cases of piracy off its coastline. The lucrative piracy business-- paying off millions of dollars in ransom—has been a threat to international shipping and a hindrance to the delivery of food aid shipments since the second phase of the Somali civil war in the 21st century. In 2008 alone, 65 ships were attacked along the dangerous Somali coastline, with 28 being hijacked and the pirates receiving US$150 million in ransom. The situation has been a grave concern to international organisations, including the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), since most of WFP’s shipments arrive by sea.
Kenya has been at the forefront of championing efforts to fight piracy once and for all. But why does Kenya show concern for an issue of international magnitude? First, Kenya mediated the peace process that led to the formation of the TFG in exile in Nairobi. Second, insecurity in Somalia, including piracy has affected Kenya’s tourism revenue earnings, with most cruise ships no longer coming to Mombasa, not to mention travel advisories issued by governments of source countries. Besides, Kenya has been at the forefront of seeking a lasting peace in Somalia since insecurity in that country could have spill-over effects on Kenya. For one, Kenya’s borders are porous and this has led to the proliferation of small arms, which has in turn led to a rise in insecurity. Besides, Kenya has borne the heaviest brunt of the conflict in Somalia as refugees arrive in droves. However, Kenya’s position has not gone down well with the Somali insurgents who have always threatened to attack the country.
The UN Special Representative in Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah says the unprecedented rise in piracy was threatening the freedom and safety of maritime trade routes, affecting not only Somalia region but also a large percentage of world trade. He notes that addressing piracy also requires identifying and targeting the perpetrators and their associates. Countries that can do so should trace, track and freeze the assets of the backers of pirates. They deserve to be brought to justice and prevented from harming their country, its economy and reputation.
Following increased attacks on ships, NATO sent warships to the coast of Somalia to ward off future attacks. Nevertheless, piracy continues unabated, inflating insurance premiums for ships that ply the dangerous Somali waters. Ship owners now pay up to US$1.5million a vessel for a trip through the Gulf of Aden. As expected, the high cost of insurance and the risk of ransom payment is forcing shipping companies to opt for a longer and more expensive route round South Africa instead of the Gulf of Aden. It does not help matters that the East African Community member states, in whose territorial waters some of the attacks have taken place, have no harmonized strategy to combat piracy. The regional bloc also has to deal with the emerging threat of money laundering as millions of dollars paid to pirates in ransom find their way into the parallel economies of member states.
But why is piracy on the rise? What gives pirates the courage to operate with so much ease? Many observers attribute the vice to the lawlessness in Somalia which has been without a functioning government since dictator Siad Barre was deposed in 1991. Impunity and lack of respect for human rights have no doubt encouraged piracy. According to Ould-Abdallah, Somali leadership inside and abroad, as well as the international community, have neglected Somalia for years. Piracy may be one of the most acute consequences of this neglect. He says the situation can be ameliorated by undertaking supportive programmes through humanitarian assistance for emergency situations and development programmes to help rehabilitate infrastructures and create jobs for young people who account for close to 60 per cent of the population.
The modern-day pirates, who hail from the autonomous Somali region of Puntland, are living in opulence and power, getting sophisticated by the day. They can carry out assaults on the sea, disappear on land, and reappear on the sea. It does not help matters that there is lack of proper coordination among the international naval powers patrolling the Somali coastline. While security analysts argue that the only way to eradicate pirates is to overrun their land bases, this remains a tall order for the disjointed international naval powers.
Piracy has now become a fad as poverty in the region and the huge ransoms have attracted many young men to the vice. The situation has been exacerbated by the cycle of ransom payment that enables pirates acquire more sophisticated weaponry. Unlike their early days when they operated using simple weapons, the pirates now have deadly arsenal including heavy machine guns, grenade-propelled rocket launchers, satellite phones as well as the Global Positioning System (GPS) which they acquire using their ransom money. Meanwhile, the advanced weaponry and equipment have also facilitated their attempts to get more ransom by hijacking ships.
The situation gets complicated as pirates, on the other hand, argue that theirs is not an act of terrorism or piracy; they are on a mission to protect the Somali coastline against illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste by European nations. This is the genesis of the problem. Lawless Somalia had no authority to patrol its tuna-rich coastal waters and foreign commercial vessels took advantage of this to cast their nets. This did not go down well with Somalis, who saw these vessels as illegal and raking in profits at the expense of the local impoverished population. That prompted local fishermen to attack foreign fishing vessels and demand compensation. The success of these early raids in the mid-1990s persuaded many young men to retire from fishing and take up piracy.
The Somali pirates claim that the money they demand in ransom is used for cleaning up the environment. Indeed, Ould-Abdallah confirmed that the UN has evidence to show that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline. However, the envoy absolves governments from blame, clarifying that private companies do this individually.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Somalia has been used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste since early 1990s. Apparently, European companies found it cheaper to dump waste in Somalia, where it costs as little as US$2.50 a tonne, as opposed to Europe where the cost of waste disposal is as high as U$1000 a tonne.
With the pirates getting sophisticated by the day and insisting that they are not engaged in terrorist activities, it remains to be seen whether the vice will be completely eliminated. Acting on tip-offs from contacts at ports in the Gulf of Aden, they use speedboats with very powerful outboard motors to approach their target. Sometimes the speedboats are launched from much larger "mother ships" on the high seas.
Though warships from at least nine countries are now operating in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, the pirates have always outsmarted them. Not even the advice from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) urging ship-owners to adopt measures such as having look-outs or travelling at speeds which would allow them to outrun the pirates, has worked. The pirates move extremely quickly and often at night, catching the ship crew off-guard. But that’s not all. Once the pirates have taken control of a ship, military intervention is complicated because of the hostages on board.
Still, the work of the international maritime force has been made difficult as pirates move south into the Indian Ocean, wreaking havoc in the waters known as the Somali Basin. Geographical problems then come into play. The European force, alongside other navies, has to patrol an area the size of Western Europe. It happens that the force could be several days away from a vessel that has been hijacked.
Besides, pirates know the law. When they see a naval frigate coming, they dump their weapons over the side, making it difficult to charge them with piracy. In most cases when caught, they say that they are fishermen, the lack of any fish or fishing gear notwithstanding. With the ransom money, acquiring more weapons after dumping others is no big deal.
Still, there is also no international legal system for people accused of piracy, although some have been put on trial in Kenya, while one group was captured by French forces and taken to face justice in France. The general observation is that an international court is needed, backed by the UN, with perhaps even an international prison for those convicted.
Despite the grim situation, a solution could be in sight if proposals by technical committees constituted during the December 2008 Nairobi conference on piracy are anything to go by. Among the proposals floated are the support of Somalia in establishing an effective police and coastguard to provide adequate law enforcement capacity to deal with piracy, human trafficking, illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste. The committees also proposed to support UN efforts to facilitate drafting of appropriate ship riders’ agreements between naval forces currently patrolling the high seas in support of Security Council resolutions and cooperating countries in the region.
In the final analysis, piracy will not be eradicated from the region until Somalia becomes a stable, functioning state with a thriving economy. A robust fishery protection force can keep piracy under control in the meantime while the world shifts its resources to this bigger problem. This creative solution could make Somali waters more secure and give its people much-needed hope for the future.