Somali Pirates: Belated Humanitarian Gesture and More Attacks

Reported as Ship fights off attack; Pirates free food aid ship:

Somali pirates attacked a Maltese flagged-ship before dawn Monday with rocket-propelled grenades, but the ship escaped unharmed, a NATO spokesman said.

And in a rare case of good news, Somali pirates released a Lebanese-owned cargo ship after only a few days after they found out it was headed to pick up food aid for hungry Somalis.

Monday's attack on the MV Atlantica took place 30 miles (48 kilometers) off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, said Lt.-Cmdr. Alexandre Santos Fernandes, a spokesman for the NATO alliance.

Two boats with about six pirates each attacked the ship and one skiff attempted to board it. The ship took evasive maneuvers and escaped without damages or injury to its crew, Fernandes said.

Meanwhile, U.N. World Food Program spokesman Peter Smerdon said pirates released the Lebanese-owned MV Sea Horse on Friday. He had no more details and it was not known if a ransom was paid.

Different tribes involved in the piracy have different views on the food ships. Doesn't make them any less pirates.

Somalia: Escorted Food Ship Arrives Safely

World Food Program ship arrives in Somali with food, as set out here:

A ship ferrying UN food aid arrived in Somalia's Mogadishu port Thursday escorted by a Canadian frigate to deter an attack by pirates.

The Golina carried 4,000 tonnes of food to the war-torn country, where at least 3.2 million people are facing shortages, an AFP correspondent aboard the Canadian frigate Ville de Qebec reported.

The World Food Programme-chartered ship will spend four days offloading its cargo while the frigate returns to the Kenyan port of Mombasa to escort a second ship to Somalia.

African Union troops in Mogadishu are providing security.

With rampant piracy and rising insecurity in Somalia, sea transport is the last lifeline for the hunger-stricken Somalis.

And, we hear from the skipper of the Canadian escort ship:

The commanding officer of HMCS Ville de Quebec had to escort a United Nations ship delivering aid to the war-torn country and after Somali pirates seized two vessels earlier this week, he knew it was a risky mission.

As he watched the food aid containers offload at Somalia's Mogadishu port Thursday, Commander Chris Dickinson breathed a sigh of relief.

The Canadian frigate began assisting World Food Programme (WFP) ships last month as they go about transporting food supplies from Kenya to Somalia where at least 3.2 million people are facing shortages.

Dickinson eventually lifted the onboard red alert signal when he was certain there was no further risk of an insurgent rocket attack.

"It feels great. I always feel relieved at that stage," he said. "When I'm heading off again, I'm looking forward to the next one."

Ninety minutes earlier, as both vessels entered Somali waters, the rise in tension and focus onboard HMCS Ville de Quebec was palpable.

Silence quickly descended on board as the alert level was notched up to yellow and then red, leaving only a gentle humming from the ship's engines.

Men wearing flak jackets and armed with assault rifles spread out along the deck, and in the ship's command centre officers carefully orchestrated the final approach.

According to the commander it is during this latter stage in the voyage when they are the greatest threat from speedboats laden with explosives ramming the hull or rockets fired from the shore.

A brief anxious moment followed when officers caught sight of a small Somali fishing boat stray from the mouth of Mogadishu port. But the threat was short lived.

"Normally, when we are at sea, the risks come from the pirates. But when we get to coast, it becomes different: ashore violence and terrorist attacks," said Dickinson.

Outside a helicopter took off for a reconnaissance flight, while seamen lowered a speedboat to fetch the Canadian naval officers from the Golina, the WFP cargo ship.

HMCS Ville de Quebec's escort ended two nautical miles (3.7 kilometres) off the Somali coast.

Two speedboats carrying armed Ugandan soldiers from the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia came to meet the Golina and guide it to the offloading point at the port.

Having completed its mission, the Ville de Quebec immediately heads back to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, where the next WFP cargo ship is expected from the South African port of Durban in a few days.

Once ashore, the food will be controlled by...?

Somalia: Canada to step in as escort provider

Canada looks like it will take on escort duty for World Food Program shipping, it is reported here:

Canada is making plans to send a Halifax-based frigate to waters off the horn of Africa to stop pirates from attacking food shipments bound for Somalia.

This would involve diverting HMCS Ville de Quebec, which left Halifax last month for a 5½-month NATO mission to the Mediterranean and Black seas.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay had hinted Monday that there would be an announcement in Halifax on Tuesday about sending a warship on a United Nations mission. But on Tuesday, his spokesman said the announcement had been postponed and the department wouldn’t provide any details.

"My links are all telling me there’s going to be an announcement that the Ville de Quebec will be taken from NATO’s standing maritime group and sent to (waters) off Somalia to escort World Food Programme relief supplies to Somalia," said Eric Lerhe, a retired commodore who is a member of Dalhousie University’s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies.

While he was hopeful that is the case, Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme, could not confirm Tuesday that the Canadian frigate will be sent to waters off Somalia.

More about HMCS Ville de Quebec here.

UPDATE: Canadian government confirms ship to serve as escort:

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the federal government is sending HMCS Ville de Quebec at the request of the UN World Food Program.

"Food supplies are urgently needed in Somalia but deteriorating security has made delivery difficult by land and sea," MacKay said in a release.

That leaves 996 ships available from "the 1000 ship navy." And possibly will prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Somalis by allowing food to flow past the Somali pirates.

I wonder what the Rules of Engagement are.

Photo: Cpl Veillette/RCN

Somalia: Death by Piracy

In Somalia about 1/2 the population depends on getting food from outside sources, especially the World Food Program. Now, not only are gangs (clans) attacking aid workers and other food distributors, one of the few successful Somali industries, piracy, is making matters worse. So bad in fact, that the WFP is contemplating engaging private contractors to escort its food ships - since the world's navies seem long on talk but short on action in supporting the WFP:

Gunmen in Somalia have shot dead three elders distributing aid in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

The killings are being linked to a wave of apparently targeted attacks on humanitarian workers.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has warned that it may have to use private security companies to protect its vessels from pirate attacks in Somalia.

The agency has been sending food ships without protective escorts after a Dutch naval mission ended last month.

The WFP country director for Somalia, Peter Goossens, told the BBC the threat of piracy was putting at risk vital food aid for millions of people in Somalia.

"The problem is twofold - the ships themselves can get hijacked and we lose the food... my biggest problem is that I can't find enough vessels that are willing to do this work for me unless they get an escort," he said.

Mr Goossens warned that the country was at a dire crossroads, with the risk of a famine similar to the early 1990s, when hundreds of thousands died.

He added that the UN had spoken to various naval powers who might provide military escorts to aid WFP ships, including Britain, Sweden and India.

He said he was grateful for their expressions of interest, but now wanted action.

Private contractors may not be loved...but if the money is there along with immunity from Somali and other prosecution, then I would guess they may be the only reliable source to which the WFP can look for shipping security. Especially since no one from any first, second or third world country really wants anything that smacks anything like ownership of the failed state of Somalia.

In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of lives teeter on the brink because of the pirates of Somalia...

Earlier suggestion of using "UN Police" can be found here (and in the comments). At least one comment concerns the use of an armed fishing trawler as an escort - which might work, but I believe a little more speed would be desired for an escort ship.

According to this, Risk Consultants International may be buying patrol boats:

Risk Consultants International Ltd has bought six Hugin and Kaparen class patrol boats for "patrolling Africas coast". The boats is of course now stripped of gun and sensors but should be a fairly nice platform to add stuff to.

UPDATE: Aljazeera coverage:
"Leading powers?" - there are enough other naval powers in the world to lend a hand - where are the navies of Turkey or Pakistan or Russia or China? Notice whose flag that is on the food bundles? How about some financial aid from the OPEC group?

A WFP video can be watched here.

UPDATE: (7/20/08) maybe it's just me, but I'm having trouble tying this headline U.S. targets Somali pirates with any content in the article suggesting that the headline is true:

In response to pirate attacks, the U.S. has stepped up its patrols to deter them and sometimes intervened to rescue hostages and ships. It also has increased its intelligence-sharing in the area, says Navy Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet in Bahrain, which patrols Middle Eastern and African waters.

The U.S. is "very concerned about the increasing number of acts of piracy and armed robbery" off the Somali coast, he says. Somalia's weak government has admitted it can't control its territorial waters, and Nigeria is fending off a rebel group.

A U.N. Security Council resolution, pushed by the U.S. and passed June 2, allows the U.S. and its coalition allies to intervene by "all necessary means" for the next six months to stop piracy off the Somali coast. Coalition ships have since scared off pirates in at least two attacks, says the London-based International Maritime Bureau.

I dunno. To me "targeting" means just that.

Something like putting an AC-130 gunship into action along the known pirate havens in Somali.