Somali Pirate attacks top the news agenda.
Prior to the ambush at sea of the Maersk Alabama and the later operation by US Navy Seals to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips, the incidence of Somalian piracy in and around the Gulf of Aidan had’nt received the kind of ubiquitous coverage about the whole issue, it is now deservedly getting.
One of the most renowned places where pirates are said to originate from is a coastal town called Eyl, within the state of Puntland on the Hafun peninsula, Somalia.
The certain brand of chaos of which some Somalis have definitely sparked off and gained from is steadily causing many of the world’s big and international shipping companies serious agitation.
With the power to demand and successfully extort phenomenal sums from chief cargo vessels by disrupting their paths of transit, a minority of participants involved in this lucrative business of hijacking have understood that there are huge dividends from this trade.
Ransom money from these exploits have also been filtered through to such US terror-listed groups as Al-Shabaab (a Somali Islamist network) Shipping has had to divert away from the Gulf of Aden/Suez Canal, making alteratives moves to traverse around the Cape of Good Hope.
The international community on the other hand still monitors the situation with caution.
Weblinks:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29473&Cr=somali&Cr1
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/somalia/2009/0201response.htm
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/548378/-/13qjlmpz/-/index.html
http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsUpload/090325FactsheetEUNAVFOR%20Somalia-version4_EN.pdf
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