Book review: ‘The Pirates of Somalia’
Review by C.F. Foster In the fall 2008, young Canadian Jay Bahadur, fresh out of college with no clear career choice and wanting to become a journalist but unable to get his foot in the proverbial door, decided to go to one of the most dangerous places on earth to make his mark. His choice: [...]
Somali pirates to start using machine guns
Gulf of Aden (Alshahid) -The European Union’s war against Somali pirates is set to escalate, writes Justin Stares. The simultaneous firing of all guns from one side of a ship is better associated with Horatio Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars but, within months, pirates will be firing broadsides from deck-mounted machine guns into freighters transiting [...]
Somalia jails six including 4 Kenyans for ‘pirate ransom’ cash
Mogadishu (Alshahid) -A Mogadishu court has jailed six foreigners accused of illegally transporting millions of dollars into the country, allegedly to pay ransoms. Speaking to Radio Mogadishu, a state-run broadcaster, Mr. Hashi Elmi Nur, the Chief Judge of the regional court, said that the accused were found guilty and that the American and Briton who [...]
Somali pirates free German ship after ransom paid
Mogadishu (Alshahid) -Somali pirates have freed a German-owned cargo ship, seized in April, after they received a ransom, a pirate and maritime source said on Friday. The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Susan K, and with its crew of 10 Ukrainians and Filipinos, was released on Thursday. “The German cargo ship has now sailed away. We have [...]
Somalia: The hidden cost of piracy
Mogadishu (Alshahid) – The growth of piracy off the coast of Somalia from an occasional nuisance to shipping into a multi-million-dollar criminal enterprise has another, often deliberately overlooked cost: the worsening violence meted out to thousands of captured crew members. “There definitely has been a change, and we don’t know why,” Pottengal Mukundan, Director of [...]
EU appoints new anti-piracy commander
European Union (Alshahid) -The EU’s Political and Security Committee announced here Thursday the appointment of Rear Admiral Duncan Potts from the UK as Operation Commander of the EU Naval Force Atalanta Operation combating piracy off the Somali coast. Potts will take up his duties on 1 August 2011 when the decision enters into force and [...]
Somali pirates release Chinese-owned cargo vessel
MOGADISHU (Alshahid) – Somali pirates have freed a Chinese-owned cargo vessel they had held for nearly seven months off the lawless Horn of Africa country, pirates and a regional maritime expert said on Wednesday. Owned and managed by Ningbo Hongyuan Ship Management Ltd, the Panama-flagged cargo carrier Yuan Xiang was seized on Nov. 12 and [...]
Somali piracy loot more enticing to youths than donor aid
Mogadishu (Alshahid) – The vast earnings from piracy off the coast of Somalia leave donor-funded livelihood programmes designed to create economic opportunities for the country’s youth looking like pocket change by comparison, and make the minimal risk of prosecution well worth taking, states a new report on ransom flows. “In the context of ransoms that [...]
A new weapon “Somali Stinger “against pirates to be unveiled soon
London (Alshahid) -British firm BCB International, whose advisers include former Special Forces soldiers, has developed the £15,000 Buccaneer Launcher System which it claims can keep pirates at bay. Dubbed the “Somali Stinger”, it is a small cannon which uses compressed air to fire projectiles hundreds of yards across the sea. And as a last resort, [...]
UK to fund counter- piracy as violence rises
London (Alshahid) -Britain has agreed to fund a £6 million programme to support counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean as evidence grows of increasing levels of violence being used against international seafarers. The UK government funds will be used to help improve maritime surveillance of pirates off the Somali [...]