In northern Somalia, government officials are warning of a revival of piracy, unless foreign nations – and the naval armada patrolling the coast – do more to help create jobs and security ashore, and to combat illegal fishing at sea, writes Andrew Harding on BBC online Wednesday.
Locals say big foreign trawlers are plundering Somalia’s coastal resources, which are rich in fish, thereby making it impossible for them to make a living using smaller coast-based fishing boats.
“If I don’t get a job soon, then yeah, sure, maybe I can go back to piracy. Anything can happen. All these people (in the saloon) can be pirates,” said unemployed teacher Daoud Ali Mohamed, 28.
For years it has been an accepted truth that in the long term, Somali piracy can only be conclusively dealt with onshore.
Se også om et dansk fiskeriprojekt på
http://u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/05-05-14/fisk-i-stedet-pirateri
The foreign warships patrolling off the coast – and the armed guards now present on many vessels – have been effective, but the pirates “are not dead, but dormant now, so they will come definitely… straight away, no question about it [as soon as the warships leave],” said Puntland’s Counter-Piracy Minister Abdalla Jama Saleh.
In self-ruling Puntland’s capital, Garowe, President Abdiweli Ali Gaas urged the international community to do much more, both onshore and at sea, according to the veteran BBC-reporter, who has covered Africa for decades.
Accusing the west of “double standards,” the president said foreign navies were only concerned about stopping Somali piracy – which more or less halted in 2012 – and were doing nothing to tackle the “highway robbery” of foreign fishing trawlers [largely Iranian] plundering Somalia’s natural resources.
Different Somalian administrations have been issuing fishing licenses, and while Puntland believes it is currently being cheated of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, there are deep concerns about corruption.
Puntland now has its own well-trained Maritime Police Force, funded by the UAE (Emiraterne). But it is far too small to patrol even a portion of Somalia’s coastline – the longest on the continent.
Hvad er Puntland?
Se https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puntland
