Pirates hijack cargo ship off Somali coast

For nearly three years, shipping companies stopped worrying about Somalia. Naval patrols had done their job, ransoms had dried up, and the Indian Ocean’s most notorious stretch of water had quietly faded from the threat maps. That confidence is now shattered.

Seven days. Four ships. One very uncomfortable question, is Somali piracy back for good?

The UK Maritime Trade Operations, UKMTO, thinks the danger is real enough to act on, bumping the regional threat level to “substantial” Sunday after armed men seized a cargo vessel and forced it into Somali waters near Garacad. It was not an isolated incident. It was the latest in a pattern.

Among the week’s victims was the oil tanker Honour 25, hijacked April 22 with 17 crew aboard, representing five different nationalities. Pakistani, Indonesian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Burmese, ordinary maritime workers now anchored against their will between two Somali fishing towns, under the watch of men with guns. A fishing vessel went the same way Thursday. That same day, a separate crew survived only because they fired warning shots at men attempting to climb aboard from a small boat.

The UKMTO’s message to vessels still in the area was blunt: “Due to the increased threat of possible PAG (Pirate Action Group) activity, vessels are advised to transit with caution.”

The conditions, authorities noted, are currently ideal for small boat operations, which is precisely how pirate action groups have always preferred to work.

Those who studied the piracy crisis at its peak know what unchecked momentum in these waters looks like. Between 2005 and 2012, Somali pirates turned hostage-taking into an industry worth an estimated $339 million to $413 million, according to World Bank figures, a criminal enterprise so profitable it attracted investors, lawyers and negotiators operating entirely in the shadows.

That era ended. The question nobody wanted to ask is now unavoidable, what exactly stopped it, and is that still holding?

Source: BBC