NAIROBI (AFP) — A Somali Islamist leader urged international action Tuesday to curb piracy off the African country's coast in a key global commerce shipping lane.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who heads the Alliance for Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) -- an umbrella Somali opposition group -- warned that piracy has become "more organised and dangerous."
"Those who carry out this filthy kidnapping of ships are on the ground and do not live in the sea. They must be brought to book and pirates must be eliminated," he told AFP in Nairobi.
Somali waters are the most dangerous in the world for pirate attacks. The International Maritime Bureau reported more than 24 known attacks in the area between April and June and more have been committed in recent days.
Maritime experts say many attacks go unreported along Somalia's 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) of largely unpatrolled coast infested by pirates, who operate high-powered speedboats and carry heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.
"These nasty elements are driven by greed and the international community must help Somalia overcome this mayhem," Ahmed said.
Ahmed was head of Islamic Courts Union, which nearly curbed piracy when it seized much of the country from warlords in 2006, until the movement was ousted by Ethiopian forces early 2007 on claims it was linked to Al Qaeda.
"Maybe pirates think they are safe, but we know them: their names, where they stay and who funds them. One day they will answer for their actions," Ahmed said.
Somalia's current transitional government has failed to shackle the pirates who threaten the Gulf of Aden, a key commercial shipping lane.
The sea raids have forced the World Food Programme to suspend shipments of humanitarian supplies without naval escort to Somalia where at least 2.6 million people face acute food shortages and the figure could rise to 3.5 by year-end.
"Millions of Somalis are in need of food aid, but gangs are terrorising the aid community. Somalis must not be held hostage by a few groups," said Ahmed.
Pirates, who are currently holding more than seven ships and their crew off northern Somalia, demand millions of dollars in ransom.
In June, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution authorising foreign warships to enter Somalia's territorial waters with the government's consent to combat pirates and armed robbery at sea, but it is yet to be implemented.
In recent months, a multinational taskforce based in Djibouti has been patrolling parts of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, where a pirate mothership is believed to be operating.
Some Somali pirates saying that in the absence of a functional government, they are battling illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste by European and Asian countries.
Somalia plunged into a civil war after the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre, setting off a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore a functional government.
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