Piracy off the coast of Somalia
Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Indian Ocean, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding places and has a long troubled history with different perspectives from different communities. It was initially a threat to international fishing vessels during the early 2000s, only to rapidly escalate and expand to international shipping during the War in Somalia. The escalation of conflict between local Somali fishermen and foreign vessels occurred in a context where Somalia is estimated to lose approximately $300 million annually since 1991 due to the unauthorized extraction of marine resources using harmful methods, such as dynamite fishing, which is prohibited in a number of other regions.
Probable causes
Coastal Somali communities report that the conflict originated from their need to defend themselves against foreign trawlers, which they allege steal fish and restrict access to traditional fishing grounds. They also claim that the dumping of toxic and nuclear waste from Europe into their waters has resulted in severe environmental damage, including the death of children. Although several narratives exist surrounding this phenomenon, the coastal groups refer to themselves as the "people's coastguard", and this self-designation is widely recognized.Somali waters have high fisheries production potential, but the sustainability of those fisheries is compromised by the presence of foreign fishing vessels, a number of them fishing illegally. The Somali domestic fishing sector is small and poorly developed, whereas foreign vessels have fished in Somali waters for at least seven decades. Some foreign vessels and their crew have been viewed by Somali artisanal fishers as a threat to their traditional livelihoods. Multiple foreign vessels directly compete for fish, reducing fish populations and destroying marine habitat through bottom trawling. Foreign fishing has increased more than twenty-fold since 1981, and the most rapid increase occurred during the 1990s after the collapse of the Federal government under Siad Barre and the ensuing civil war.
The Somali Civil War has been ongoing, with periods of calm at certain times and places, since the late 1980s. The Somali Navy dissolved by 1991> This vacuum has been exploited by often large foreign fishing boats, further threatening the livelihoods of local Somali fishing communities.
The fishing community responded by forming armed groups to deter what they perceived as invaders. These groups, using small boats such as skiffs and motorized boats, would sometimes hold vessels and crew for ransom. Some pirates have indicated that they would cease their activities if a national Somali coastguard were established that could effectively secure Somali waters. This practice grew into a lucrative trade, where large ransom payments were demanded and often paid.
These groups were then considered to be pirates, especially after they began hijacking non-fishing commercial vessels. With the region badly affected by poverty and government corruption, there was little political motivation at the local level to deal with the crisis. Large numbers of unemployed Somali youth began to see it as a means of making money. International organizations began to express concern over the new wave of piracy due to its high cost to global trade and the incentive to profiteer by insurance companies and others. Some believe that elements within Somalia collaborated with the pirates both to strengthen their political influence as well as for financial gain.
After the 1998 United States embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing in 2000 in Aden, Yemen, followed by the September 11 attacks in 2001 on the United States, the US Navy decided to step up its activities around the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, by establishing in stages a multinational anti-piracy coalition known as Combined Task Force 150, with an Area of Responsibility including some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, spanning over two million square miles, covering the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman. This area is a vital artery of world trade from the Far East to Europe and the US, with thousands of shipping movements per year including the transportation of over 27 million barrels of oil. The participating nations have included Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Spain, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Command of CTF 150 generally rotates between nations on a four month basis.
By 2010, these patrols succeeded in steadily reducing the number of piracy incidents. In early 2017, a few incidents of piracy were reported as the navies of Asian and European nations began to more actively rescue hijacked ships, including the bulk carrier.
In January 2023, the Indian Ocean High Risk Area was lifted by the International Maritime Bureau due to a significant absence of Somali pirate attacks in previous years, although Somali pirates still reportedly possess the ability and resources to conduct attacks in the Gulf of Aden region.
As a derivative effect of the escalating Gaza war at the end of 2023, new piracy-related activity rose on the Somalian coast. According to the International Maritime Bureau the first successful hijacking of a cargo vessel in the area after six years happened in December 2023. On March 17, 2024 Indian naval commandos led a rescue operation taking back control of the vessel about 500 km off the coast of Somalia, bringing the 35 Somali pirates to prosecution in Mumbai. This resurfacing of piracy in the area is closely linked to the unaltered root causes and the instability that the war creates in the area.
History
In the early 1980s, prior to the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia, the Somali Ministry of Fisheries and the Coastal Development Agency launched a development program focusing on the establishment of agricultural and fishery cooperatives for artisanal fishermen. It also received significant foreign investment funds for various fishery development projects, as the Somali fishing industry was considered to have a lot of potential owing to its unexploited marine stocks. The government at this time permitted foreign fishing through official licensing or joint venture agreements, forming two such partnerships in the Iraqi-Somali Siadco and Italian-Somali Somital ventures.After the collapse of the central government in the ensuing civil war, the Somali Navy disbanded in 1990–1991. With Somali territorial waters undefended, foreign fishing trawlers began illegally fishing on the Somali seaboard and ships began dumping industrial and other waste off the Somali coast. This led to erosion of the fish stock and local fishermen started to band together to try to protect their resources. An escalation began, leading to weapons being used and tactics such as taking over a foreign ship until their owners paid a ransom.
Pirate activity reportedly began off the coast around 2000, but rapidly escalated during the War in Somalia from 2006 to 2009. During the Islamic Court Union's six-month rule of southern Somalia in the months prior, pirate activity completely ceased due to the extensive anti-piracy operations conducted by the courts. After the organization's collapse in early 2007, piracy sharply increased. Reportedly, elements within the Transitional Federal Government were involved in the lucrative piracy business during this early period. Seeing the profitability of ransom payments, some financiers and former militiamen started to fund pirate activities, sharing the profits equally with the pirates. In most of the hijackings, the pirates have not harmed their prisoners.
Combined Task Force 150, a multinational coalition task force, subsequently took on the role of fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia by establishing a Maritime Security Patrol Area within the Gulf of Aden. However, a number of foreign naval vessels chasing pirates were forced to break off when the pirates entered Somali territorial waters. To address this, in June 2008, following a letter from the Somali TFG to the President of the UN Security Council requesting assistance for the TFG's efforts to tackle acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a declaration authorizing nations that have the consent of the Transitional Federal Government to enter Somali territorial waters to deal with pirates. On the advice of lawyers, the Royal Navy and other international naval forces have often released suspected pirates that they have captured because, although the men are frequently armed, they have not been caught engaging in acts of piracy and have thus not technically committed a crime.
Due to improved anti-piracy measures the success of piracy acts on sea decreased dramatically by the end of 2011, with only 4 vessels hijacked in the last quarter versus 17 in the last quarter of the preceding year. In response, pirates resorted to increased hostage taking on land. The government of the autonomous Puntland region has also made progress in combating piracy, evident in interventions by its maritime police force.
In part to further curtail piracy activity, the London Somalia Conference was convened in February 2012.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, by October 2012, pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean had dropped to a six-year low. Attempted hijackings fell from 237 in 2011 to 75 the following year, with successful attacks plummeting from 28 in 2011 to 14 in 2012. Additionally, only one ship was attacked in the third quarter of 2012 compared to 36 during the same period in 2011.