Somalia's pirates

Every year, 20,000 ships in route to and from the Suez Canal sail through a channel only 200 miles across at its widest point. They are within easy reach of the pirate networks based in the towns of Bosaaso, Eyl, Hobyo, Harardheere and Mogadishu.

Eyewitnesses describe the transformation of dusty, sleepy fishing villages into pirate havens, where expensive Land Cruisers ply the unpaved roads, beachside villas replace tin-roofed shacks and successful pirates celebrate by taking new wives in lavish ceremonies.

Attacks are launched either from these towns or, increasingly, from “mother ships” — often stolen trawlers — allowing the pirates to extend their range ever further into the Indian Ocean. The Maersk Alabama, for example, was attacked 340 miles out to sea.

The International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center (see live piracy map) says there have been 41 attempted attacks off the Somali coast so far in 2009, one in seven of which succeeded. The huge naval presence may be helping: Last year, one in three of 111 reported attacks was successful.

Nevertheless, IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan warned, “This recent surge of activity is worrying … principally because attacks have taken place many hundreds of miles off the country’s coastline. The problem of Somali piracy has now spilled over to neighboring countries.”

Invariably ship owners pay the ransom, usually around $1 million. According to sources in the pirate town of Eyl, half of this money goes to the financiers and sponsors of the mission. The pirates themselves then share about $300,000, and the rest is distributed among land-based gunmen and the local community.

It is said that the first pirate to board a ship is rewarded for his bravery with a double share, or a vehicle, and that compensation is paid to the family of a pirate who dies.

Pirates are estimated to have earned tens of millions of dollars in the last year alone. But these sums are dwarfed by legitimate remittances sent home from the Somali diaspora, estimated at about $1 billion a year. Abdi describes as “hogwash” the idea that pirates are exporting their cash to Somali communities abroad.

A debate is raging over whether pirate cash might help fund Islamic extremists, known as al-Shabaab, who control large parts of Somalia and have links to Al Qaeda. But so far pirates have shown more interest in money than ideology.

The fact that Somali imams have forbidden piracy and that attacks plummeted during the brief reign of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006 suggests that far from funding Islamists, the Islamists might be the answer to stopping piracy.

Read more about Somalia and piracy:

Is there a solution for Somalia?

Democracy wins in Ghana

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