Feeding alligators

Somali pirates are hungry for more

They’ve struck again. And again. And again. In fact, in a period of two weeks last month the brazen pirates off the coast of Somalia tallied nine hijacked ships alone. They can now claim their largest take, in capturing the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star some 450 miles off the coast of Mombasa. The vessel owned by Saudi oil giant Aramco was heading for the US via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, instead of heading through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.

“The world has never seen anything like this. The Somali pirates have hit the jackpot,” says Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers’ Association.

“The supertanker was fully loaded, so it was probably low in the water and not that difficult to board,” said Mwangura, adding that the pirates probably used a ladder or hooked a rope to the side.

Consider that this year, Somali pirates have attacked 90 ships, more than double the number in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau, and are still holding 16 ships and more than 250 sailors.

“We can confirm the ship is anchoring off the Somali coast at Haradheere,” said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet.

Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister called the hijacking of the Sirius Star an outrageous act and promised to back an EU-led initiative to step up security in shipping lanes off Africa’s east coast.

“This outrageous act by the pirates, I think, will only reinforce the resolve of the countries of the Red Sea and internationally to fight piracy,” he told reporters in Athens.

In a move likened to feeding alligators, Russia recently conceded to demands and paid a ransom of US$1 million for the return of a captured ship. The question at this point is – What else can be done?

The hijacking occurred despite an international naval response, including from the NATO alliance and European Union, to protect one of the world’s busiest shipping areas.

US, French and Russian warships are also off the Somali coast.

Consequently, the pirates have driven up insurance costs, forced some ships to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal and secured millions of dollars in ransoms.

Based on the recent escalation in piracy, one might conclude that such actions to date have proved ineffective. With the exception of India’s navy claiming to have sunk a mother ship last month, it appears that governments’ resistance to piracy has been minimal and insufficient.

My question is this: Don’t these affected countries have militarised special forces, such as the US’s Navy Seals or UK’s Special Air Service? Where are these units when pernicious pirates strike? Operations could be launched in the dead of night and one assumes they are trained in such matters already.

Are these primitive pirates so advanced that their defenses are impenetrable? Or, is it the risk of life that could be lost, should such actions prove unsuccessful? The world is waiting to see what the appropriate response will be.