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11. Report of the Conference "Addressing the Resurgence of Sea Piracy: Legal, Political and Security Aspects"

Author:
Emiliano Alessandri
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The resurgence of sea piracy has made headlines in recent months, becoming the object of intense debate, also among scholars and practitioners. Attention has concentrated particularly on piracy off the Horn of Africa (especially in the Gulf of Aden), where the phenomenon has reached critical levels. Reports speak of over a hundred attacks in 2008 alone and rising figures in 2009. Some 18 merchant ships are currently detained by Somali pirates together with a growing number of hostages. Ransoms paid in 2008 are estimated to be in the range of over a hundred million US dollars.
Topic:
Security and Maritime Commerce
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

12. Somalia and the Pirates

Author:
Rob de Wijk and David M Anderson
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Even though kidnappings, killings, attacks on UN and NGO compounds, suicide bombings, and the assassinations of local judges and other public figures, and the many other features of lawlessness in the Horn of Africa have become so commonplace that they are rarely now reported by European news media, from September 2008 Somalia once again dominated the news agenda. In that month pirates operating from small ports and harbours along Somalia's eastern coast mounted a series of successful attacks against international shipping, first capturing a Ukrainian vessel with its cargo of heavy armaments bound for southern Sudan (via the Kenyan port of Mombasa), and then intercepting a number of container ships before mounting an attack on a passenger vessel that was repelled by the crew. Finally, in November, the pirates landed the prize of a fully-laden Saudi-owned oil tanker. By the end of the year the pirate gangs operating out of Eyl, Haradheere and other harbours along the desolate eastern coast of Puntland, were reckoned to be holding no fewer than 40 vessels for ransom, with more than 200 crew members in captivity.
Topic:
Crime, International Law, and Maritime Commerce
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and Somalia