Somalia’s Federal government has ruled out the revival of piracy on its territorial waters, after a…
Somalia’s Federal government has ruled out the revival of piracy on its territorial waters, after a report warned the comeback of pirates due to the increased illegal fishing activities by foreign vessels.
Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Mohamed Omar said in an interview with the VOA that the sea gangs no longer have the ability to resurgent.
“We don’t have pirate men who are organized like the group we are fighting against now [al-Shabab], who are stationed in a particular area, who we can call pirates, that does not exist now.’’
The number of attacks by Somali pirates dropped sharply since 2012, largely because of an international naval effort. One of the other major factors that led to the decline of Piracy was the growing lack of support or even resistance to piracy operations by local communities. As much as many Somalis along the coast resented the international navies, they resented the effects of piracy on their communities even more.
Relative stability in Somalia in the past last three years after 20 years of chaos and war has raised hopes that it could lead to a more permanent solution to a problem that has driven up shipping insurance rates, but it has yet to solve the issue.
Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa with 3,330 KM. Since the central government was overthrown in 1991, foreign fishing trawlers began illegal fishing and ships from big companies started dumping waste off the coast of the lawless country.
The absence of the country’s at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international “free for all,” with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country’s own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen, says a UN report released in 2006.
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