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Later, an alleged spokesman of the pirates contacted the BBC, saying that ‘we will not harm [Mr. and Mrs. Chandler], we only need a little amount, $7m (£4.2m).’ He stated that this sum covers recent damage done by NATO in the region. Both this spokesman and Mrs. Chandler have tried to make it very clear that the couple is in good physical condition.
Associated Press learned from a Somali fisherman that two boats carrying eight pirates and a white couple have come to shore early on 29 October. The Guardian reports that they have become the subject of a battle for control between rival gangs over plans to hand the Chandlers over to a militant Islamist group, before being taken inland. A clan elder in central Somali village of Bahdo has told the Associated Press that, ‘we did not want the pirates to use our territory to hold hostages or hand them over to another group.’ Consequently, they took up arms with the help of a moderate Islamic group. He claims the couple has not been harmed in these fights.
The main agency administering global piracy attacks, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), has called the waters off Somalia, ‘the number one piracy hotspot, with a total of 168 incidents reported in the first three quarters of 2009, accounting for more than half of the overall number of reported attacks.’ The first nine months of 2009 have already seen 306 attacks worldwide, thirteen more than in the whole of 2008. Despite heavily increased international patrols off the coast of Somalia, not only the overall number of attacks has risen, but the IMB has also reported a 200% increase of incidents involving guns.
Poverty and the absence of a powerful central authority, after 18 years of chaos, are the two main reasons for Somali piracy. In a 2008 interview in the Guardian, pirate boss Asad ‘Booyah’ Abdulahi states that as there was no money for university, he became a fisherman. His first attack at a foreign fishing vessel was an act of frustration.
Abdulahi states, ‘we give priority to ships from Europe, because we get bigger ransoms.’ The pirates demand ransoms from the shipping companies. ‘We split the money,’ he says, ‘for instance, if we get $1.8m, we would send $380,000 to the investment man who gives us cash to fund the missions.’ A share of the profit is used to buy equipment, including arms.
Whilst the pirates live in wealth, the majority of the seaside population is still extremely poor. This has over the past decades proved to be fruitful soil for Islamism.
There is a general agreement with the IMB’s recommendation that the new moderately Islamist government under President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed should address piracy internally. This will be a long and insecure process, but is the most promising solution. The government - installed in February 2009 - is the first in decades with widespread domestic and foreign support.
Ken Menkhaus points out that although pirate strongholds are not a secret, military intervention will do too much damage. Not only is there a severe risk of the loss of life of 250 non-US hostages, pirates will quickly regroup in other towns. In the longer run, the people might turn against the fragile US-supported government. The Shabab, sometimes called Somalia’s Taliban, seems to have lost much support under the people for the first time in years, but is still a considerable force.
Military intervention is also likely to face considerable opposition from the shipping companies. The $30m to $40m ransom paid in 2008 is not even enough for insurance companies to raise their quotes. Shipping crews are, at this point, generally released alive, however long it takes.
It is feared that ransoms paid to the pirates fuel the Shabab’s Jihad. The British government refuses to pay the ransom for the Chandlers, whose conditions remain unclear, fearing it may support international terrorism.
President Sheik Sharif’s government is currently Somalia’s best hope to become a peaceful country. Only Somalia will be able to prosecute the pirates, whose legal status is cloudy at best, and to solve the other enormous domestic problems, including poverty and Islamism.
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