Pirates: Somalia needs help

2005-10-22 20:23

Nairobi - Somalia's government appealed on Saturday for international help to combat pirates, who have used speedboats, automatic weapons and satellite phones to target UN-chartered ships and other vessels.

The appeal came a day after the International Maritime Bureau reported an alarming increase in attacks off the southern and eastern coast of Somalia and appealed to US and Nato warships in the region to protect vessels sailing near the Somali coast, an important shipping route connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean.

Pirates have launched 23 attacks against ships off Somalia since March 15, the London-based International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy around the world, said on its website.

Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, transforming this nation of seven million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.

A new transitional government, formed during lengthy peace talks in Kenya, is struggling to establish itself in Somalia as it faces internal divisions and opposition from Islamic militants and warlords who benefit from ongoing anarchy.

"Until we establish our own marine force, we want neighbouring countries to deploy their navies to protect Somalia's coastline against the pirates," Mohamed Ali Americo, a senior official in the Somali prime minister's office, said as the 10-member crew of a UN-chartered ship arrived in Kenya following a 100-day hijacking ordeal.

Trained fighters

"We need help from all the nations along the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea."

"The pirates use ransom to buy weapons," he told The Associated Press. "Their operations are also intended to destabilise and discredit the transitional government now that it has relocated to Somalia."

A Hong Kong-based company that owns Feisty Gas, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker that was seized on April 10, paid $315 000 to a representative of the Somali hijackers in Mombasa, Kenya, according to a recent UN report.

Pirates who seized 48 Asian fishermen and their three vessels on August 15 are still holding them captive near the southern Somali port of Kismayo.

Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and Global Positioning System equipment.

They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades, according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia.

"That is what makes them very dangerous and we are appealing for help," Americo said.

- SAPA