Somalia under pressure to pass anti-piracy laws

The waters off the Somalia coastline drew global focus after marauding pirate gangs threatened to override the international shipping industry.

Within seven years, scores of vessels plying the route round the Gulf of Aden were seized and crew held hostage, leading to multi-million payouts in ransom to the pirates.

Today, a lot has changed and piracy off the Somalia coastline has taken a lull thanks to patrols by several international navies.

The UN Security Council noted that there were only 17 pirate attacks in the first nine months of 2013, compared with 99 incidents in the first nine months of 2012. Somali pirates hijacked 46 ships in 2009 and 47 in 2010, the EU Naval Force said. In 2011, pirates launched a record 176 attacks.

Despite this lull, the international community maintains that the threat remains high and has vowed to press on with a purge against the gunmen.

Last week the UN Security Council unanimously ruled to prolong the patrols on Somalia waters by international navies and urged the conflict-torn country to urgently pass laws banning pirates off its coast.

“The council underlined the primary responsibility of Somali authorities in the fight against piracy and armed robbery off their coast, requesting them to pass a complete set of anti-piracy laws without further delay, and urging continued efforts, with international support, to adopt an exclusive economic zone, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the UN organ said in a resolution supported by all its 15 members.

Somali authorities were also urged to bring to justice those who were using its territory to plan, facilitate or undertake those crimes.

“All States were urged to adopt legislation to facilitate the prosecution of suspected pirates and to assist Somalia — at its request and with notification to the Secretary-General — in strengthening its maritime capacity. They were also called on to criminalise piracy under domestic law,” the Security Council further said.

Pirate groups have taken advantage of lawlessness in Somalia to launch attacks on vessels and crew plying the route round the Gulf of Aden.

Trade in the east Africa region suffered heavily as piracy caused disruptions and sharp rises in the cost of commodities. The menace led to increased operational costs due to higher insurance premiums and use of longer alternative routes round the cape as well as hiring of special security personnel to escort vessels through the Gulf of Aden and other measures such as watchtowers and razor wire.

The attacks also led to increased operational costs due to higher insurance premiums and use of longer alternative routes round the cape as well as hiring of special security personnel to escort vessels through the Gulf of Aden and other measures such as watchtowers and razor wire.

At the peak of the attacks, prices of basic industrial and household items rose sharply after shipping lines passed on the additional costs to consumers down the supply chain.

Andrew Mwangura, the secretary-general of the Seafarers Association, said the Kenyan tourism industry is yet to fully recover from the knocks suffered following the piracy in Somalia.

“The November 5, 2005 piracy attack on the Bahamas flagged cruise ship Seabourne Sipirit has hit Kenyan tourism industry. The number of tourists embarking and disembarking at the Mombasa port has gone down from 40,000 to less than 10,000 annually,” he said.

He said that the vice had also negatively affected the fishing industry as European shipping vessels which used to discharge 60,000 tonnes of tuna fish at the Mombasa port annually no longer call at the harbour.

The activities of these gangs off the Somalia coastline have however taken a hit lately following joint operations of international navies including those of the US, Britain, Russia and Turkey.

Somalia’s fragile central government still does not have full control of large sections of the country, much of which is ruled by Al-Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab militants.

An African Union military force mainly comprising troops from Kenya and Uganda is currently trying to help the Somali government extend control over more territory.

The Security Council last week approved a proposal to beef up resources to countries which contribute troops in order to break the stalemate with Al-Shabaab.

Analysts said the hefty sums of ransom paid to pirates in previous attacks could encourage renewed hijackings should authorities get lax.

The World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimate that between 2005 and December 2012 Somali pirates were paid between Sh29.3 billion ($339 million) and Sh35.7 billion ($413 million) as ransom for the ships detained and seafarers kidnapped.

The pirates are said to have collected between Sh13 billion ($151.1 million) and Sh13.5 billion ($155.67 million) in 2011 which was their most lucrative year.

In a report titled Pirate Trails: Tracking the Illicit Financial Flows from Pirate Activities off the Horn of Africa, the organisation said once the ransom is paid, all debts are settled before any payouts can be made.

The low level pirates who go out to sea to hijack the vessels are the first to be paid getting the standard sum of between Sh2.6 million ($30,000) to Sh6.5 million ($75,000). The UNODC notes however that there is normally a bonus for the pirate who boards the ship first as well as those bringing their own weapons for the operation.

Real estate

Errant pirates are also fined for their behaviour and individual debts deducted from the pay. According to the joint report the most commonly reported expenses of low level pirates are sex workers, alcohol, expensive cars and khat which is often provided to private foot soldiers on credit during the operation.

The ransom is normally paid and transferred into various accounts before it finally reaches the financiers.

In 2011, an inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) highlighted this as they investigated the release of the hijacked Belgian ship MV Pompei.

“While investigating the case of the MV Pompei, hijacked on April 18, 2012, the Belgian authorities discovered that the pirate negotiator had ties to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and located bank accounts and identification numbers in that country.

In addition, Belgian authorities estimate that following the ransom payment, the money was taken to Djibouti where it was sent via Money or Value Transfer Services to Dubai,” the FATF analysis shows.

Much of the money is not invested in a single region in Somalia according to the Pirate Trails report though most of the money is put into the development of militia and building political influence and some small percentage of the financiers seek to invest in the transport businesses, import and exports as well as in smuggling goods in and out of Somalia.

While there has been great suspicion that piracy money may be driving real estate boom in Kenya, the joint report notes that there is insufficient data to prove this.

“It is enough to conclude that some money goes to the real estate sector, but is definitely not sufficient to say precisely where and even less to point to any investment of such importance that it would influence the market’s prices,” the report says.

The fight against piracy recently got a boost when self- proclaimed pirate Mohamed Abdi Hassan, alias Afweyne, was arrested. He is currently being held by Belgian authorities for capturing Pompei for more than 70 days in 2009.

The kingpin of piracy who over the years featured in many global reports as having financed pirate missions was lured into the European country, purportedly to have the story of his life captured in a documentary film.