1. Counting the Costs of Somali Piracy
- Author:
- Raymond Gilpin
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Roughly the same size of France and six times the size of the U.S. state of Virginia, Somalia has a 3,025 km coastline (longer than the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico, which is some 2,700 km ) on the northeastern corner of Africa. Its recent history has been marred by violence and instability. Since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, there have been more than a dozen attempts to forge political consensus and establish a functioning central government. 1 Although the Transnational Federal Government was established in 2003, with its capital in the southern city of Mogadishu, it remains fairly ineffective. De facto, Somalia is governed by a system of clans operating in three relatively autonomous regions – Somaliland in the northwest, Puntland in the northeast and Central Somalia in the central and southern regions.
- Topic:
- Crime, International Law, and Maritime Commerce
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, France, Mexico, Somalia, Virginia, Puntland, and Mogadishu