Somalia: Mapping pirate activities
Written byNdesanjo Macha
White Africa writes about a map showing pirate activities in Somalia: “UNOSAT has released the following map of pirate activity off the coast of Somalia in 2007. Fascinating map.”
Written byNdesanjo Macha
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I have difficulty understanding why this activity is tolerated, and not corrected.
It is obviously easy to track these pirates, and various navies certainly have the firepower to devastate the pirates. I believe that if piracy is made expensive, then pirates, what is left of them, will find another pass-time.
Out of Africa: I imagine the problem is that Somalia doesn’t have a functioning navy, and that the navies of the surrounding countries are largely ineffectual.
The interesting issue is shown in the graphic at the base of the map. Piracy decreased dramatically when the UIC came to power, and then resumed after their regime fell.
There are two possible interpretations: one says that the UIC imposed some order on Somalia, the other says that the UIC is involved in piracy activities. Bah!
I noticed that most of the pirate attacks seem to be on fishing boats. I have to wonder, what are foreign fishing boats doing off the coast of Somalia?
Just the other day, a Spanish fishing boat was captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The world is really getting smaller if Spain has a border with Somalia.