An alleged pirate vessel burns after being hit during anti-piracy operations at sea
Greek ship released by pirates (click title to entry, thank you)
Pirates in Somalia have released a Greek-owned ship that was hijacked two months ago.
Greek officials say the tanker's cargo of refined oil is intact and its 19 crew members are safe.
The owners of the MV Genius declined to say whether a ransom had been paid to the pirates.
In the past two weeks Somali pirates have seized eight vessels, including a huge Saudi tanker carrying $100m (£67m) worth of crude oil.
This high profile case has outraged the maritime industry and the international community have called for joint action against piracy....
Who are Somalia's pirates? (click here)
A Monitor Q&A reveals who's behind the modern-day pirates, how they got so good at taking ships, and what's being done to stop them.
By Scott Baldauf Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 21, 2008 edition
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - – Today's pirates are mainly fighters for Somalia's many warlord factions, who have fought each other for control of the country since the collapse of the Siad Barre government in 1991.
Their motives? A mixture of entrepreneurialism and survival, says Iqbal Jhazbhay, a Somali expert at the University of South Africa in Tshwane, as Pretoria is now called.
"From the evidence so far, these primarily appear to be fighters looking for predatory opportunities," says Mr. Jhazbhay. They operated "roadblocks in the past, which were fleecing people as a form of taxation. Now they've seen the opportunities on the high seas."
Initially, one of the main motives for taking to the seas – working first with local fishermen, and later buying boats and weapons with the proceeds of every ship they captured – was "pure survival," says Jhazbhay, explaining that armed extortion is one of the few opportunities to make a living in lawless Somalia.
"It's spiked more recently because of a spike in food prices," he says.
Now it has become a highly profitable, sophisticated criminal enterprise hauling in millions of dollars in ransom payments....
A NEW WAR ON PIRACY?
Germany to Deploy Up to 1,400 to Fight Pirates (click here)
The uproar over pirates off the Gulf of Aden has led the German government to contribute a naval frigate to an EU mission along the Somali coast. More soldiers may be on the way. In the meantime German helicopters have defended a pair of merchant ships from pirate speedboats....
Somalia's coastguard ready to tackle pirates (click here)
Colin Freeman in Boosaaso, Somalia
November 26, 2008
SOMALIA'S ramshackle coastguard is preparing to tackle the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker to ransom, saying that the only force the hijackers fear are "other Somalis".
Abdiweli Ali Taar commands a cash-strapped fleet of three elderly gunboats from the northern port of Boosaaso, which are manned by a 50-strong paramilitary crew.
The outfit - the only law-and-order presence on Somalia's coastline - was trained by Hart Group, a British security company, but lacks enough cash to put to sea for any length of time. Mr Taar said his men would be ready for action as soon as the Saudi Government or other foreign donors were prepared to pay for the operation....
Somali Pirates Hijack Another Ship, Drop Ransom for Saudi Tanker (click here)
By Derek Kilner Nairobi25 November 2008
Kilner report - Download (MP3) Kilner report - Listen (MP3)
Pirates have hijacked another ship off the coast of Somalia, this time a Yemeni vessel carrying steel. As Derek Kilner reports from VOA's East Africa bureau in Nairobi, pirates have dropped their ransom on the largest ship in their possession - a Saudi Arabian oil tanker - to $15 million.Pirates seized the MV Adina in the Gulf of Aden as it headed to the Yemeni island of Socotra, according to Yemen's official news agency. The ship was carrying over 500 tons of steel and seven crew members from Somalia, Yemen and Panama.The ship had been scheduled to reach its destination last Thursday, and it was not clear when exactly the ship was seized. Yemeni officials said they have communicated with the pirates, who are demanding a ransom of $2 million....
No links between Somali pirates, al Qaeda: US (click here)
Tue 25 Nov 2008, 13:42 GMT
By David Clarke
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States is worried Somali pirates may forge ties with terrorist groups but has no evidence of links between the hijackers and al Qaeda, the U.S. military's Africa commander said on Tuesday.
Africom commander General William Ward told a news conference in Kenya that the international community was looking "very seriously" at piracy, but said it was a complex issue that required collective, comprehensive action....
1 US Dollar = 1,460.73 Somali Shilling
Thursday, 8 February, 2001, 14:34 GMT
Anger over fake Somali currency (click here)
The main market in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, has been closed after forged currency was found to be in circulation.
A large quantity of forged Somali shillings arrived in the country on Wednesday evening and started appearing in Bakara market early Thursday....
Piracy 'hits the Somali economy' (click here)
Published Date: 20 November 2008
SOMALI pirates preying on international shipping are also damaging their homeland's battered economy, worsening the instability that opened the door to piracy and inroads by Islamic extremists, the UN chief warned.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the surge in piracy has worsened the humanitarian crisis and weakened the transition government....
Economy booms in Somali piracy bases (click here)
Published on 23/11/2008
BOSASSO, Somalia
As dawn breaks over the Indian Ocean each morning, elders in Somali pirate bases sip strong coffee and clutch mobile phones to their ears, eager to hear the latest from the gunmen out at sea.
Have any more ships been hijacked or ransom talks concluded? Any news of the Western warships hunting them?
Last weekend’s spectacular capture of a Saudi Arabian supertanker loaded with oil worth $100 million has jacked up the stakes in what is probably the only growth industry in the failed Horn of Africa state.
Massive ransoms have brought rapid development to former fishing villages that now thrive with business and boast new beachside hotels, patronised by cash-rich buccaneers who have become local celebrities virtually overnight.
Investors have been attracted from around Somalia.
THE BUSINESS
"There are some ‘pirates’ who never shoulder a gun or go out into the ocean, but they own boats which earn them a hell of a lot of money," gang member Bashir Abdulle told Reuters by phone from Eyl, the most notorious of the pirates’ strongholds. Just three years ago, maritime security experts estimated there were just five Somali pirate groups and fewer than 100 gunmen in total. Now they think there are more than 1,200.
Some analysts trace the gangs’ roots to ties forged with criminal networks across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen during years of people-smuggling operations...
ECONOMY-SOMALIA: Walking The Line Between Business and War (click here)
By Najum Mushtaq
NAIROBI, Nov 14 (IPS) - A doctor in Mogadishu gives medicine to a man complaining of an upset stomach. ‘‘This medicine won't work,’’ groans the patient, ‘‘I got sick after eating expired food; only an expired medicine will cure it.’’
Such real-life anecdotes livened up a two-day seminar on the otherwise grim and tragic history of commerce and economy in Somalia's capital since 1991 when the state collapsed, leading to anarchy and a seemingly unending civil war that rages until today.
Before the war there were 23 major markets in Mogadishu; now there are only two—the main Bakara Market, divided into 46 sectors, and the smaller but equally vibrant Souk Ba'ad. The biggest partner of Mogadishu's business community is Dubai with a total annual trade volume of 600-700 million dollars.
Organised in Nairobi by the Norwegian Institute of Urban and Regional Research, the recent seminar presented the findings of a research team led by Dr Stig Jarle-Hansen, based on a survey of Mogadishu's economy from 1991 to 2008.
The meticulous study covers different aspects of doing business in a civil war context—from its ethics to logistics, and from the ‘‘novel’’ means of raising business capital to the more ‘‘orthodox’’ techniques of survival such as raising a militia to protect business interests....
Somaliland: Stability amid economic woe (click here)
As UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa published its report on stimulating development in March 2005, the BBC's Rob Walker visited Somaliland - part of Somalia until it declared independence in 1991- to see how it is faring....
Economic history of Somalia (Wiki - click here)
...As a result of the civil war in many areas, the economy deteriorated rapidly in 1989 and 1990. Previously, livestock exports from northern Somalia represented nearly 80 percent of foreign currency earned, but these exports came to a virtual halt in 1989. Shortages of most commodities, including food, fuel, medicines, and water, occurred virtually countrywide. Following the fall of the Siad Barre regime in late January 1991, the situation failed to improve because clan warfare intensified.
