UN adopts Somalia's anti-piracy measures

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Regional organisations and states working with Somalia government will be able to enter territorial waters of the Horn of Africa nation in the fight against piracy, United Nations has said.

On Wednesday, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 2500, which renews authorization for Somalia's anti-piracy measures until December 2020.

Drafted by the US, the resolution permits allied countries to "use all necessary means for the purpose of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea".

While stressing that such measures are consistent with applicable international humanitarian and human rights law, UN said that the allied nations can also pursue pirates on land in Somalia.

Somalia had requested anti-piracy measures be renewed in a letter to the Security Council on Nov. 22. Mogadishu has been fighting piracy for decades.

A report released by State Department in November observed tremendous progress in the anti-piracy war at Somalia's coastline.

Somalia, the State Department said, had closely worked with international naval forces to thwart piracy, with only one major successful incident reported in 2019.

To vanquish the vice, the US said: "Five pirates, three of whom had been wounded by gunfire, were transferred to Seychelles for prosecution."

According to EUNAVFOR, one of the captured pirates had previously been prosecuted in Seychelles for involvement in the attempted hijacking of the fishing vessel Galerna III.

Rear Admiral Alfonso Perez de Nanclares, in a past interview with the BBC, said piracy had been drastically contained in Somalia.

"Piracy has been contained but I really think the intention of going back to this business is still there. I think by working together [with the authorities] we'll be able to suppress and eradicate it."

Al-Shabaab militants are said to have shifted to piracy, having abandoned their charcoal trade, which for years supported their terror activities.

The possibility of huge riches seemed to have been the main driver of piracy off the Somali coast.

But it was the lack of an effective central government since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, and the subsequent disbandment of the Somali navy, that enabled it to happen.

Somali territorial waters saw a rise in smuggling, illegal fishing by foreign trawlers, illegal dumping and later piracy. Among organisations helping Somalia fight piracy include EU, NATO and UN.

The latest adoption of anti-piracy measures by UN is a great boost to FGS, which has often fought allegations of abetting the vice.

GAROWE ONLINE