29 October 2009
Nairobi — The Comoros has asked Kenya to help it fight pirates threatening its port business.
The Comorian Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier-General Salimou Amir, said at the port of Mombasa on Wednesday that the island nation could not fight piracy on its own.
"We don't have a big navy. That is why we are turning to big countries that have big navies such as Kenya and the Nordic countries," he said.
The Comoros is in the process of setting up a coast guard to monitor piracy in its waters."After Seychelles, we are aware that the pirates are coming and they are not far so we expect them to strike one of these days," Brig-Gen Amir said.
He said piracy off Somalia's waters had adversely affected port business in the Comoros archipelago.
Brig-Gen Amir, the chairperson of chiefs of defence staff in Eastern Africa, was speaking during the loading of 23 trucks and other equipment on the mv Tor Futura destined for Djibouti where the region's 14 countries will take part in military drills from November 21 to 26.
Some 298 Kenyan soldiers will take part.
Defence minister Yusuf Haji said the joint exercise in Djibouti was geared towards ensuring not only cooperation but military assistance to any of the 14-member states.
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