Pirates seize ship carrying tanks, ammo

Do not worry. Any day now the motherland will rise to the occasion.

 

Looks like these beggars are starting to piss alot of people off.

 

Yet, there is a whole lot of nothing going on about it.

 

No surprise here .

Somali pirates demand ransom for Turkish ship
Tue Nov 4, 7:46 am ET

ANKARA, Turkey – The owner of a Turkish ship commandeered off Somalia with 20 crew on board says pirates have demanded a ransom for its return.
Pirates hijacked the Yasa Neslihan freighter last week in the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. It is one of the world's busiest waterways.
Yasa Holding spokesman Fehmi Ulgener said Tuesday that pirates are demanding a ransom but he did not disclose the amount they wanted.

Somali pirates demand ransom for Turkish ship - Yahoo! News

 

Hoorrrraaayyyy!! NATO has arrived .

[SIZE=+1]NATO anti-piracy operations off Somalia [/SIZE]
NATO has launched its first anti-piracy mission off Somalia after one of its warships successfully escorted a cargo ship to the port of Mogadishu, the alliance’s chief said last week.
“One NATO ship just finished escorting a ship which was bringing in supplies” for the Burundi section of the UN-mandated African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
The escorted ship docked on Tuesday, with similar escort missions to follow swiftly, he added.
“The operation is moving well”, Scheffer told reporters at a joint news conference with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Three NATO ships have been given the go-ahead to use force under their rules of engagement and in line with international law.
They are mainly helping escort UN World Food Program (WFP) food shipments, tempting targets for pirates, until the European Union can launch its own operation, probably in December.
The WFP ships 30,000 to 35,000 tons of aid into Somalia each month.
Recently the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said Somali pirates were now responsible for nearly a third of all reported attacks on ships, often using violence and taking hostages.
The IMB said 63 of the 199 piracy incidents recorded worldwide in the first nine months of this year occurred in the waters off war-ravaged Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. This comes to almost double that of the same period last year.
Piracy is rife and well organized in the region where Somalia’s northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal, through which an estimated 30 percent of the world’s oil is transported.
The pirates operate high-powered speedboats and are heavily-armed, sometimes holding ships for weeks until they are released for large ransoms paid by governments or owners.
Earlier this month the EU announced that its own mission -- with ships from Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and possibly Britain -- would be run from a headquarters at Northwood, near London.
Russia and India have also sent ships to the area on anti-piracy duties.

NATO anti-piracy operations off Somalia

 

Okay. I see that Nato sent a few ships but there are several ships from the EU there. Aren't Nato and the EU pretty much the same nations?

 

Sort of, but NATO includes the USA as well which IIRC hasn't been accepted into EU as yet due to difficulties over there with crossing over from the US$ into the stronger Euro.

 

Hell. I didn't even know that Cyprus had an Navy LOL.

"
The Cyprus Navy is equipped with CNV P-190 fast patrol craft, Salamis class patrol craft, Kyrenia class patrol craft and SAB-12 fast attack craft.
The Cyprus Coast Guard is equipped with CNV P-190 fast patrol craft, Evagoras class patrol craft, Kingfisher class fast patrol craft and Kimon class fast patrol craft.
Both services also utilize Nautimar HD-7 and other types of dual-engine rigid-inflatable boats.
The Cyprus Navy has a Special Forces underwater demolitions unit known as "OYK"."

Cypriot National Guard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Typical American arrogance!

 

Who?? Me???? LOL

 

Hey now, don't forget Canada!

 

there are 26 members in Nato including some who are not in the EU (Turkey for instance ). Here is the full list. NATO Member Countries and yes it includes Canada.

 

Any guesses as to when the EU forces will be deployed?

 

Well, dealing with paperwork, then more paperwork and then making every country agree to the conditions of how the fleet is deployed, then making everyone agree on who is in charge of the fleet... In 2020 at the most we'll have a fleet patrolling Somali waters

Bureaucrats... Don't you just love them???



Cheers...

 

Well with some being in both the EU and NATO I wonder how the Bureaucrats are going to deal with that? LOL.

 

Well, they'll form a committee with lots of members, and study the matter. Then the committee will issue a majority report and at least one minority report. Then the issues will be debated in the media, and finally they'll have a public referendum, which will decide that nothing should be done (don't want to hurt the Somalian's feelings after all). But regardless of the outcome, you can be sure there will be lots and lots of neat new forms to fill out, if a pirate is as much as sighted on the horizon.

 

Looks like some more Russians to rescue!!!!

Somali pirates seize Danish cargo ship



Published: Nov. 9, 2008 at 1:25 PM




BOSSASSO, Somalia, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Somali pirates have seized a Danish cargo ship with a largely Russian crew, maritime officials reported Sunday.
The Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin reported the dry-cargo ship has 13 crew members, including eight Russians, and was registered in the Bahamas, RIA Novosti reported.
Four Estonians and a Georgian were also aboard the ship, the Russian news agency said.
Pirates have attacked more than 60 ships so far this year, with about 30 of them seized off the coast of Somalia, officials say, noting the East African nation has no central government and fields no navy.

Somali pirates seize Danish cargo ship - UPI.com

 

Sovfracht?

 

Here ya go Za.

Maritime News Russia - Sovfracht

 

EU to Send Warships to Combat Piracy Off Somali Coast (Update2)

By Gregory Viscusi
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- European Union member states agreed to send a fleet of warships to the Somali coast, joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and at least three other countries that have deployed naval vessels to combat pirates in the world's most dangerous seas.
The decision by defense and foreign ministers from the 27- member EU at a Brussels meeting today gives approval to an agreement reached at an informal gathering last month in Deauville, France.
The fleet, the first naval mission put together by the EU, will be in place by next month, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said at a press conference. The force will be called Atalanta and at least eight countries have pledged warships or patrol planes, he said.
``We've been faced with an unacceptable rise in piracy in the zone,'' said Morin. ``This operation is proof that a Europe of defense is starting to take shape.''
The one-year mission will be commanded by British Vice- Admiral Phillip Jones, based in Northwood near London, and operate out of the French military base in Djibouti on the Gulf of Aden. The cost is estimated at 8.3 million euros ($11 million), the EU said in a statement.
Pirate attacks climbed fivefold in the Gulf of Aden in the first nine months of this year as ransom payments spurred raiders to step up their activities, the International Maritime Bureau said last month. At least 60 boats have been attacked and more than 12 vessels and 259 crew members remain hostage.
Protect Food Shipments
NATO last month sent a six-boat fleet to protect food shipments to Somalia. Malaysia has sent three gunboats to protect its nation's oil tankers, and Russia and India have sent a warship each. Task Force 150, a fleet of about 12 warships in the Indian Ocean that carries out anti-terrorism missions as part of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, also sometimes combats pirates.
Shippers say all that firepower won't rid the Somali coast of piracy. Naval units must go after the pirates' dens and boats to reduce piracy, they say, not just patrol the 1,500-mile (2,414 kilomteres) coast waiting for the pirates to make the first move. A lasting solution also requires a stable government in Somalia, which isn't likely soon.
``We don't feel any safer than we did a year ago,'' says Sam Dawson, spokesman for International Transport Workers' Federation. ``NATO and the others are talking about patrolling, not arrest and interception.''
Gulf of Aden
Last week, Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden hijacked the CEC Future, a multipurpose ship owned by Copenhagen-based Clipper Group, the Danish company said. About 16,000 ships a year go through the Gulf of Aden on their way to the Suez Canal.
The pirates are divided into rival clans, living in towns along Somalia's northern breakaway regions, says Roger Middleton, a researcher at the Africa program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. They use second-hand fishing trawlers to launch speedboats, enabling them to attack ships several hundred miles from shore.
In response to those attacks, the United Nations Security Council, spurred by France and the U.S., on June 2 passed Resolution 1816 allowing foreign warships to enter Somali waters ``for the purposes of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea by all necessary means.''
Warships still mostly wait for pirates to attack before responding, says Peter Hinchcliffe, general manager at the International Chamber of Shipping in London, even though the UN Law of the Sea and recent resolutions give them the right to suppress piracy.
Political Will
``Rules of engagement aren't the issue, the issue is political will,'' says Hinchcliffe. ``The French and the Danes have the most robust attitude. There now has been some change of direction by the U.S. and the U.K.''
Spokespeople for Task Force 150, and the French and British navies, said they don't give details of their rules of engagement.
Morin said EU officials were still working out common legal criteria on how to treat captured pirates.
The fleet will ``take the necessary measures, including use of force, to discourage, prevent, or intervene to put an end to acts of piracy,'' the EU statement said. The naval forces can ``apprehend, retain, and transfer people having committed or suspected of committing acts of piracy,'' it said.
The Danish and French navies have intercepted pirates at sea, confiscating their weapons and sometimes destroying their speedboats.
Targeting Speedboats
Jesper Lynge, a spokesman for the Danish navy, says Denmark's frigate in Task Force 150, the Absalon, stops all suspect speedboats.
``We know fishermen are armed to defend themselves so we don't take their weapons,'' Lynge said. ``But if we find a speedboat with eight men, all armed, with ladders, our assumption is that they are looking for something larger than shrimp.''
In September, the Absalon seized a pirate ship and held 10 pirates on board for a week. It released them onshore because the country's Foreign Ministry decided it had no grounds to take them to Denmark and charge them.
The French navy last month arrested nine pirates after destroying their boat and weapons, and then turned them over to authorities of the breakaway region of Puntland. Twelve Somali pirates sit in French jails, captured in two separate raids by French naval commandos following the hijacking of French boats. They haven't been charged yet.
Coastal Anarchy
``Naval forces are not a lasting solution because it's too big a zone to control, and they don't address the key drivers, which are coastal anarchy and the illegal fishing that's driven so many Somalis to piracy,'' Middleton says.
Somalia has lacked a central government since 1991. The Puntland breakaway region does occasionally mount operations against pirates. But it must borrow boats from local businessmen to mount military strikes against the pirates, says Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, a senior adviser to Puntland president Adde Muse.
``We don't get any help from Western governments,'' Qabowsade says. ``If they support and help our administration, I am sure that we will overcome these pirates.''
Piracy did briefly stop in Somalia in late 2006 when the country was ruled by the Islamic Courts movement. The U.S., fearful of an Islamic government in the Horn of Africa, encouraged Ethiopia to invade Somalia and chase out the courts.
``When the Ethiopian army defeated the courts they didn't have an interest in occupying the coastal areas,'' says Hans Tino Hansen, managing director of Vedbaek, Denmark-based Risk Intelligence, a security consultant. ``There was a power vacuum and piracy resumed in January 2007.''

Bloomberg.com: Africa