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Thread: More Piracy Near Somalia

  1. #701
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Anti-piracy: privateer option, 1st get a lawyer!

    Hat tip to Lowy Institute's 'The Interpreter' for this Australian news item (behind a paywall) 'Glencore chief Simon Murray launches private navy to combat Somali pirate threat':
    This private navy will use a 10,000-ton mother ship, high-speed armoured patrol boats, '240 former marines and sailors' and one former Royal Navy commodore to provide security to oil tankers and bulk carriers as they traverse the piracy plagued Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Murray insists that this is more cost effective than using sovereign warships to patrol the waters off Somalia.
    The blog post ends with:
    Typhon is sailing into a deep legal fog. Presumably the company is investigating these issues, though it has made no public statements on the subject (and it does not appear to have a website). One thing is certain; Typhon had better have a very good lawyer on speed dial.
    Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...vate-navy.aspx

    Not to overlook:
    There has been no successful hijacking since June 2012, when a fishing dhow was seized, according to data from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
    Link:http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/42...n-glencore.htm
    davidbfpo

  2. #702
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Piracy has plummeted

    From FP's Situation Report:
    Piracy has plummeted off the coast of Somalia.

    Citing Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs: "This multi-pronged strategy has led to results...We're seeing more pirates prosecuted, fewer ships being attacked, the statistics are striking."

    According to the (US) Navy, there has been a 75 percent decline in overall pirate attacks in 2012 over the year before. And the number of attacks in 2011 were half that what they were in 2010. Independent sources (for) Last year, pirates captured 10 vessels, compared to 34 in 2011 and 68 in 2010...and the last successful attack of a commercial vessel was in May of last year. In January 2011, pirates held 31 ships and 710 hostages; today, pirates are holding four ships and 108 hostages.

    Despite fears that putting armed guards on ships would create a Wild West, cowboys-at-sea climate, violence has not increased significantly....Once the pirates realize that many ships are a "hard target," they refrain from attacking it, he said. Shapiro also said he was impressed also with the discipline that many commercial vessels exhibit when it comes to using weapons.

    Building up indigenous ground forces has also helped. What has really thwarted pirate networks is a ground force known as the Puntland Maritime Police Force, according to an expert who has worked on the ground in Somalia.
    davidbfpo

  3. #703
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Is Somali piracy over?

    Hat tip to a "lurker" who recommends this update via CNN:http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn....i-piracy-over/

    It ends with:
    For now, Somalia remains fragile, meaning piracy could remain the most visible outgrowth of chronic economic and political instability onshore. The question the international community now faces is how willing is it to continue applying billion dollar band aids that temporarily mitigate, but do not truly eliminate, the threat.
    davidbfpo

  4. #704
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    Default Millionaire’s Private Navy Ready to Take on Somali Pirates

    Millionaire’s Private Navy Ready to Take on Somali Pirates

    Entry Excerpt:



    --------
    Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
    This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

  5. #705
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default

    The figures collected by the IMB (international Maritime Bureau), are a vital barometer of pirate activity:
    Somali related incidents 2013: Six reported incidents including one hijacking.

    Current crew / vessels held by Somali pirates: hostages - 71 / vessels - 5
    Link:http://www.icc-ccs.org.uk/piracy-rep...cynewsafigures
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 05-19-2013 at 11:24 AM. Reason: Copied and pruned from another thread
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  6. #706
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    Default Just one of Somalia's "forgotten" piracy cases

    At long last freedom for a mixed group of sailors:
    The Albedo, a Malaysian-flagged container ship, was originally captured in November 2010 with a crew of 23 from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Iran and Pakistan.....were finally released on Saturday, bringing to an end one of the longest-running Somali piracy cases. The 11 crew members of the MV Albedo were facing their first hours of freedom after three years and seven months as hostages, during which their pirate captors often used torture
    Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...captivity.html
    This report is supplemented by a South African video report, which suggests a different story about their escape / release:http://www.enca.com/exclusive-pirate...es-fly-freedom

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  7. #707
    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
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    Default

    MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Three Somali pirates were killed in a fight over the ransom paid to free the German-American journalist who was released this week after two years and eight months of captivity, a police official said Friday.

    The gunfight broke out in the central town of Galkayo late Thursday when some of the pirates who held Michael Scott Moore attacked their comrades, accusing them of conducting a secret deal with negotiators, said Mohamed Hassan. A top pirate commander was among three people killed after Moore was freed on Tuesday, he said, adding that one camp of pirates accused the other of betrayal.
    http://news.yahoo.com/3-killed-somal...100409198.html
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
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  8. #708
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Armed guards aboard did it?

    Two posts in this thread in 2014, that is a sign I suppose.

    It must be conference time, needless to say not in Somalia, as we have this:
    The High Risk Area off the Somali coast has seen over 700 attacks by pirates since 2009, but last year there were only 11 pirate incidents and no ship hijackings. No ships have been hijacked in the area since the start of January 2013. Toward the end of 2011, seven ships were being hijacked a month.

    Security experts can point to no one reason for the quiet in the Somali Basin, but suggest several factors have combined to reduce the threat over the past year. Among these are the presence of three international naval task forces in the area, the extensive use by ship owners of armed private security guards, and improved best security practices for sailing through high risk waters off east Africa.
    Link:http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.ph...ticle&id=37870

    I read with amusement the hints that Al-Shabaab is now known to have had a greater role, if only as levying a tax on ransom payments. IIRC most pirates came from areas, such as Puntland, where Al-Shabaab was not in power.
    davidbfpo

  9. #709
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default The other side of Somalia's pirates

    An Al-Jazeera report from a former pirate port, Eyl, in Somalia's northeast. I know some pirates have been jailed, not seen any stats before:
    Farhan is one of more than 200 men from this town who have been hauled off to prisons far from this Horn of Africa country. More than 1,300 young Somali men have been jailed in prisons abroad for piracy since 2005. Most have been sentenced to life in jail.
    Rather incredulously the local mayor offers to house those jailed in the town's jail; the reporter doesn't say how long they be there for!

    Link:http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fea...12818517.html?
    davidbfpo

  10. #710
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Highway robbery, dormant piracy and next?

    A BBC reporter has been to Puntland, a semi-autonomus region of Somalia and reports on the possibility piracy will resume. He starts with:
    In northern Somalia, government officials are warning of a revival of piracy, unless foreign nations - and the naval armada patrolling the coast - do more to help create jobs and security ashore, and to combat illegal fishing at sea.
    I know that trawlers operate offshore, some of whom have been kidnapped, but not that the majority are - read on:
    Accusing the west of "double standards," the president said foreign navies were only concerned about stopping Somali piracy - which more or less halted in 2012 - and were doing nothing to tackle the "highway robbery" of foreign fishing trawlers [largely Iranian] plundering Somalia's natural resources.
    Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-33822635?

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  11. #711
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Pirates turn to protecting Iranian fishing vessels

    The actual title is:
    Somali pirates earn new cash by acting as escorts to the fishing boats they once hijacked
    Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-hijacked.html

    There is one would expect a downside to this business:
    In late November, an Iranian fishing vessel, the Muhammidi, became the third Iranian ship to be hijacked this year, a pirate gang seizing its 15-strong grew close to the notorious pirate town of Eyl.
    It is unclear whether the Iranian hijackings were cases of straighforward piracy or cases where an existing "protection deal" had fallen foul of inter-clan feuding.
    davidbfpo

  12. #712
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default We've gone quietly

    Well, well this was done quietly:
    NATO has ended its Indian Ocean counter-piracy mission after a sharp fall in attacks, the alliance said on Wednesday, as it shifts resources to deterring Russia in the Black Sea and people smugglers in the Mediterranean.All ships and patrol aircraft have now left the area off the Horn of Africa, where they patrolled since 2009, .....NATO says its "Ocean Shield" operation, as well as European Union and other counter-piracy missions, have significantly reduced attacks, with no ships captured off Somalia since May 2012, down from more than 30 ships at the peak in 2010-11.
    Link:http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/...-defence.html?


    The European Union Naval Force (Op Atalanta) is poised to end next month; it only has two ships, one Dutch frigate and a Spanish patrol vessel. Plus a German and a Spanish P3 Orion.


    The non-NATO commanded Combined Maritime Forces remain; with thirty-one participants.
    davidbfpo

  13. #713
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default We're back

    Via NYT:
    Pirates off the coast of Somalia have seized an oil tanker with eight Sri Lankans on board, in what is believed to be the first hijacking of a large commercial vessel in the region since 2012, officials said on Tuesday...a small tanker delivering fuel...owned by a Panamanian company, Armi Shipping.....
    Link:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/world/africa/pirates-somalia.html?

    A BBC commentary, which includes this fact:
    The vessel and its crew of eight Sri Lankan seafarers ... This brings to 16 the number of seafarers currently being held by Somalia-based pirates, the remaining eight being Iranians.
    Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-39283911
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-16-2017 at 10:37 AM. Reason: 177,160v. Add 2nd source.
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  14. #714
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default We're back: Part 2

    Who moved first then? From WaPo:
    Somali pirates who seized a Comoros-flagged oil tanker earlier this week after five years without a major hijacking in the region have released the ship and its crew without conditions, officials said late Thursday. Security official Ahmed Mohamed told The Associated Press the pirates disembarked the ship, which was heading to Bossaso port, the region’s commercial hub, with its eight Sri Lankan crew members aboard.
    Mohamed said the release occurred after negotiations by local elders and officials with the pirates, who seized the tanker on Monday.
    Naval forces from the semiautonomous state of Puntland and the pirates clashed earlier Thursday after the pirates opened fire.
    Link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/somali-official-says-pirates-open-fire-on-local-naval-forces/2017/03/16/8876700a-0a39-11e7-bd19-fd3afa0f7e2a_story.html?

    I was puzzled at the references in the reporting to the EU naval mission, as my last post about in them in November 2016 was that it was due to disappear, instead:
    On 28 November 2016 the Council of the EU extended the Mandate of Operation ATALANTA until December 2018.
    Link:http://eunavfor.eu/mission

    Currently it has two frigates, one French, One Spanish; with two P3 Orions, one German and one Spanish. See:http://eunavfor.eu/deployed-units/mpras/#news-tabs
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-17-2017 at 06:06 PM. Reason: 177,601v
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  15. #715
    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
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    DJIBOUTI (AP) - Pirates have returned to the waters off Somalia, but the spike in attacks on commercial shipping does not yet constitute a trend, senior U.S. officials said Sunday.
    The attacks follow about a five-year respite for the region, where piracy had grown to crisis proportions during the 2010-2012 period, drawing the navies of the United States and other nations into a lengthy campaign against the pirates.
    U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters at a military base in the African nation of Djibouti, near the Gulf of Aden, that even if the piracy problem persists, he would not expect it to require significant involvement by the U.S. military.
    At a news conference with Mattis, the commander of U.S. Africa Command said there have been about six pirate attacks on vulnerable commercial ships in the past several weeks.
    http://www.wbng.com/story/35219587/u...rs-off-somalia
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


    http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg

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