Fight piracy with Marshall Plan for Horn of Africa

Piracy in the Horn of Africa grabbed the front pages of newspapers around the world when Somali pirates succeeded in taking over several cargo ships, including a Saudi supertanker, the Sirius Star, with $100 million worth of oil onboard. The pirates operating in these troubled waters extorted what is no less than a king’s ransom in exchange for the safe return of the ships, the crew and the cargo. The pirates continue to hold a number of ships and their crews.

Newspapers and television are not the only ones following developments in the Horn of Africa. The recent spike in piracy also has aroused the attention of security and military officials around the world, particularly after intelligence sources began linking some of these pirates to Islamist terrorist groups affiliated with al Qaeda. In the past 12 months, more than 120 ships, according to the World Maritime Union, have been attacked by pirates and about 40, one out of every three, ships attacked has been successfully hijacked.

Indeed, piracy in the Horn of Africa is such a hot topic these days that it is piquing the interest of the world’s top security experts. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies devoted an entire session to studying this new phenomenon and to discussing ways to successfully deter modern piracy at the institute’s annual symposium on Gulf security, which took place in Bahrain over the weekend.

Western nations - particularly the European Union and the U.S. - were somewhat slow to react to the threats posed to their national security. This delay has allowed the pirates to become bolder and more daring. But now, after months of failing to respond to the challenge posed by these pirates, the European Union has finally began to take action.

However, this period of inactivity allowed the pirates to acquire more sophisticated weapons with the money they received. As of Monday, the European Union launched a new initiative in the area, Operation Atlanta, a joint effort by the 27 member nations. This was the first naval mission of its kind, the aim of which will be to try and eradicate this new plague and growing threat to international shipping.

By no means will this mission be an easy one, given the size of the area in question - three times the size of France - and the means at their disposal to police that zone.

The initial task force counts only six warships and three maritime patrol planes. Britain and France, two former colonial powers in Africa, have taken the lead in the fight against modern-day piracy, along with Greece, a country where an important percentage of the word’s merchant ships are registered, providing Greece an important revenue stream. Germany and Italy are sending gunboats, and France and Spain are contributing fighter planes from the nearby French military base in Djibouti. France maintains an important base there used by the French Foreign Legion.

So challenging is the task that the European Union is asking non-EU members to participate in the joint naval task force. While no doubt this is a positive development - and it should inject some much-needed confidence among vessels of the world’s merchant marine and pleasure cruises, both of which have been the target of international piracy - action should have been taken months ago, when the problem was still manageable and when the pirates were not as well-armed and equipped.

Pirates, modern-day ones at least, are equipped with speedboats fitted with powerful outboard engines, often ones more powerful than those used by the authorities. Today’s pirates are equipped with automatic weapons, light artillery and sophisticated navigational equipment. Now if that was not bad enough, according to intelligence sources, many of these pirates also have links with militant Islamist organizations.

Had the question of piracy been handled with a firm hand from the outset, the situation the international community finds itself in today would not exist. Modern-day pirates know how to invest the money they extort. A good portion of it is “reinvested” in the tools of the trade of the modern-day pirate.

The fact that these pirates were able to successfully ransom vessels, their cargos and crews for large sums of money now gives them additional clout and resources. A few million dollars goes a long way in the Horn of Africa, one of the poorest regions on Earth.

Of course, brute military force alone is not the answer and will only solve the problem temporarily, if that. What is needed here is a mini-Marshall Plan to help develop the region, in turn offering Somalis a viable alternative to joining marauding gangs of pirates, be they on land or at sea.

Cracking down on piracy and crime is indeed a must. Logic commands, however, that the thousands of unemployed youth be offered a way out of their misery.

c Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times