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Somalia: Hijacked Cargo Ship Has Moved Towards Somalia, Says EU Naval Force
RFI, 20 December 2023
The European Union's maritime security force says it's monitoring a Maltese-flagged merchant ship that was hijacked last week in the Arabian Sea off the Horn of Africa. Read more »
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Somalia: Somali Pirates Are Back in Action - but a Full Scale Return Isn't Likely. Here's Why
The Conversation Africa, 12 December 2023
An Iranian fishing vessel, Almeraj 1, was reportedly hijacked by Somali pirates in November 2023. According to media reports, the pirates demanded US$400,000 in ransom and… Read more »
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Somalia: Somali Piracy, Once an Unsolvable Security Threat, Has Almost Completely Stopped. Here's Why
The Conversation Africa, 27 September 2023
In 2011, pirates carried out 212 attacks in a vast area spanning Somali waters, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, actions that the World Bank said cost the world… Read more »
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Africa: Africa's Ocean of Organised Crime
ISS, 9 October 2023
A lack of state and industry accountability has turned the ocean into the world's biggest transnational crime scene. Read more »
Are Somali Pirates Making a Comeback, or Just Treading Water?
While recent pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have sparked concerns, experts believe a major resurgence is unlikely, writes Peter Viggo Jakobsen and Troels Burchall Henningsen for The Conversation Africa.
This despite the hijacking of an Iranian fishing vessel and a Yemeni tanker in November 2023 sparking concerns about a possible resurgence. The two attacks have led the Somali government to call for greater international support to deter piracy in the Horn of Africa. Similar fears that Somali piracy was on the rebound surfaced after five previous attacks in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
However, experts believe that a full-blown comeback is unlikely due to the effectiveness of various anti-piracy measures implemented over the past decade. Measures like naval patrols, self-protection by ships, legal frameworks, and regional capacity building have made piracy a high-risk, low-reward proposition for criminals. These measures, although some have scaled back, largely remain in place.
InFocus
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Following the significant decline in piracy attacks in Nigerian waters - put at 77% - following the Nigerian Navy's increased counter security operations against maritime ... Read more »
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Somali pirates have hijacked a Panama-flagged ship. Officials say the ship was traveling from the United Arab Emirates to Mogadishu port when it appeared to develop mechanical ... Read more »
