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UN Warns Piracy Threatens Somalia Lifeline
London (AFP) July 10, 2007 A wave of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia is threatening to cut off aid supplies to more than one million people, two UN agencies warned on Tuesday. The heads of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and World Food Programme (WFP) said they want the UN Security Council to ask Somalia to allow foreign warships to move against pirates in its waters. "Today we are here to call upon the world to act together with the transitional federal government in Somalia to put these pirates out of business," the WFP's executive director Josette Sheeran told reporters here. She added that these "pirates bear no resemblance to those romanticised in movie screens," adding they posed a serious threat. "They are equipped with highly sophisticated hardware including small attack boats, rocket propelled grenades, automatic weapons and GPS tracking systems," Sheeran said. Security appeared to improve following an agreement last year allowing foreign warships in the region to intervene but the pirates have increased attacks after moving within Somali territorial waters, the IMO said. The IMO's secretary general Efthimios Mitropoulos backed Sheeran's appeal for foreign warships to operate in Somali waters because they are currently powerless to act against attacks within their reach. "Sometimes this is under the watchful surveillance of warships which for reasons of international law cannot move in, they watch a crime being committed unable to intervene," he said. Five vessels are currently in the hands of pirates in Somali waters, and 16 attacks on ships have been reported this year off Somalia's 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) of unpatrolled coastline, according to the UN. Two vessels chartered to carry aid for the UN World Food Programme were among those targeted, with the crew of one held hostage for 45 days while one man was killed attempting to repel the pirates from the other. Many of the pirates are believed to be linked to militias fighting in Somalia, diverting ransom and cash or goods seized on board ships into buying weapons and furthering the civil war, the officials said. Around 80 percent of UN aid to Somalia is delivered by sea because of the risk to aid convoys on land from militia attacks. Sheeran said the WFP is still able to ship supplies through, but warned that even one more attack could threaten to halt the flow. She pointed out in a statement that "we have seen the availability of ships willing to carry food to the country cut by half."
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 21st Century Pirates
US Asks China To Help Maintain Global Maritime Security
Washington (AFP) Apr 10, 2007The United States on Wednesday asked China to join a global effort to maintain international maritime security, as the Pentagon welcomed Beijing's navy chief Vice Admiral Wu Shengli on a rare visit. |
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