US sails into Somali waters

2006-04-18 13:27

Nairobi - The United States has agreed to patrol the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia, said transitional Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Tuesday.

An increasing number of merchant ships have been attacked and hijacked by gunmen in Somali waters.

Although US officials said they were unaware of any such arrangement, Gedi said he had secured a "milestone" agreement with Washington for the patrols.

Under the agreement, he said US navy ships from the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, which have moved against Somali pirates in international waters in the Indian Ocean before, will now operate within Somalia's territorial waters.

Gedi said: "The US navy has agreed to secure Somali waters from illegal fishing, tame activities of pirates and keep a vigil on acts related to terrorism.

"The involvement of US forces is a milestone in the pacification of Somali waters.

Agreement marks new phase

"Piracy has affected business activities, sabotaged aid efforts to needy Somali people at a critical time, and may create an environment that would be helpful to terrorism."

Gedi said the US's commitment to patrol Somalia's 3 700km coast had been made in a meeting between him and William Bellamy, US ambassador to neighbouring Kenya.

Diplomats familiar with US policy in Somalia said they had no information about the agreement.

If confirmed, however, the claimed agreement would mark a new phase in US re-engagement with Somalia, following its disastrous experiences in peacekeeping in the Horn of Africa nation in the 1990s.

Ten gunmen arrested

Since the formation of Gedi's fledgling and largely powerless government in 2004, and its move to Somali soil from exile in Kenya last year, Washington has made several tentative steps toward involvement in Somalia.

The most obvious of these have been naval encounters between US warships and increasingly brazen Somali pirates, who have staged at least 41 attacks on commercial vessels off the Somali coast since March 2005.

In January, the USS Winston Churchill seized a hijacked Indian dhow, used by alleged pirates to stage attacks on other vessels.

Ten gunmen were arrested 10 gunmen. They are now on trial for piracy in Kenya.

- AFP