The European Union has launched a security operation off the coast of Somalia, its first-ever naval mission, to combat growing acts of piracy and help protect aid ships. Dubbed Operation Atalanta, the mission, endorsed by the bloc’s defence ministers at talks in Brussels, will be led by Britain, with its headquarters in Northwood, near London.
The so-called EUNAVOR operation will be made up of at least seven ships, three of them frigates and one a supply vessel. It will also be backed by surveillance aircraft. It will include contributions from eight to ten countries including France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain, with Portugal, Sweden and non-EU nation Norway also likely to take part.
Somali Pirates Commit Third of All Attacks
The EU initiative was taken after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed urged Somalis and the international community to combat rising piracy off the lawless nation’s waters. The International Maritime Bureau said 63 of the 199 piracy incidents recorded worldwide in the first nine months of this year, nearly a third, occurred in the waters off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. Somali pirates often use violence and take hostages.
The Somali figure is almost double that of the same period last year. Somalia’s well-organised pirates prey on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which some thirty 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.
Danish Ship Currently Hijacked
Meanwhile, the Danish operator of a cargo ship seized off the Somali coast by pirates last week with thirteen crew members on board said it had received demands from the hijackers Monday. The crew members, eleven Russians, a Georgian and an Estonian, are doing well and have been allowed to contact their families by phone. Despite its country’s involvement in the latest pirate attack, Denmark is prevented from contributing to the mission because of a joint defence agreement signed in 1992.
Warships Already Protect Ships Delivering Food and Aid
NATO warships recently arrived in the region in a bid to secure the maritime delivery of food aid to the civilian population of Somalia, where a deadly civil conflict continues to rage. India and Russia have also sent ships to the area on anti-piracy duties.
Engagement
France, which has a major military base in neighbouring Djibouti, is so far the only country to have used its firepower against the pirates, in April and September operations following hostage-takings.
Under the mission’s rules of engagement, EU nations that capture any pirates will not be allowed to hand them over to a state where suspects could face the death penalty, torture or degrading treatment.
