The European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) has expressed concern that perceptions are growing that piracy attacks off Somalia are on the decrease. In a recent meeting in Brussels, EUNAVFOR Operation Commander Admiral Duncan Potts was alarmed by the notion that such attacks have vastly decreased, an opinion that flies in the face of official figures which show that pirate attacks have actually increased, although successful hijackings have significantly decreased.

Several media reports have claimed that attacks are standing at roughly half the number of those carried out in 2010. EUNAVFOR’s primary concern is that such perceptions (that the piracy threat is receding) and the conclusions being drawn from such opinions in the media, is misleading and does not accurately reflect the continuing and existing threat.

Snapshot from report on piracy in the HRA:

* Please note, disruptions are only from EUNAVFOR units and do not account for disruptions by CMF and NATO

(You can keep up to date with EUNAVFOR’s activities by visiting their website www.eunavfor.eu)

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Maputo — The European Union on Monday ratified a new fisheries partnership agreement with Mozambique.

Under the agreement, which actually came into force on 1 January 2012, 75 European fishing boats will be allowed access to Mozambican waters. Of these boats, 43 are tuna purse seiners and 32 are surface longliners.

The three-year agreement sets a quota of 8,000 tonnes a year, with the European Union paying the Mozambican government 980,000 euros per year in compensation. This includes 460,000 euros annually to support the development of the Mozambican fisheries sector and the country's maritime policy.

Spanish boats will receive 38 licences, covering 22 tuna purse seiners and 16 surface longliners. France will receive 28 licences for 20 tuna purse seiners and 8 surface longliners. Portugal will be allocated seven surface longliners licences, whilst Italy will have a permit for one tuna purse seiner and Britain will receive one licence for a surface longliner.

The new agreement has a smaller quota than in the previous agreement. This is because several boats have pulled out of the area due to the increased risk of piracy.

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The Indian Military Attaché based in the Seychelles has today confirmed that an Indian Navy Ship will make a call to Port Victoria in the Seychelles in the spirit of solidarity with the island nation in its drive to rid the shipping routes off the African Coast of the plague of piracy.

The Seychelles and La Reunion Islands are jointly hosting the 2012 Carnival of Carnivals that will be held in Seychelles from March 2-4. The carnival is known around the world as the Carnival of Carnivals because of the uniqueness of this Vanilla Islands Carnival that attracts the best and most known carnivals to parade alongside each other and with the cultural groups from the Community of Nations. “Diversity in a theme of the melting pot of cultures has ensured that the world descends on Seychelles for this unique event. The 2012 edition will be even more diverse as many new countries have now confirmed their participation,” said Alain St.Ange, the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board.

But Seychelles and La Reunion Island have inserted a serious side to their mid-ocean carnival. The UNWTO Secretary General, Mr. Taleb Rifai is personally traveling to the Seychelles to deliver a tourism message on opening day of this unique carnival, and navy ships from the Community of Nations have also been invited to dock in Seychelles, and for them to march in the carnival procession to send a message of the world’s resolve against the plague of piracy affecting the shipping routes off the East African Coast. “In the 2011 edition of the carnival in Seychelles, many navies were part of the carnival procession. We are hoping that for the 2012 edition, we shall again have that support to echo to the world that enough is enough, and something needs to be done to rid the Indian Ocean of Somali Pirates,” Alain St.Ange said.

Seychelles has now received confirmation that India has dispatched a navy ship to Seychelles for that show of solidarity in response to letters of invitation dispatched to the Community of Nations. “Seychelles is thrilled to receive the confirmation that India navy will be in our midst for the 2012 Carnival. For this, we say thank you India,” Alain St.Ange said on hearing the news that India had confirmed that a ship would be in Port Victoria for the carnival days.

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by Charles Pe

Editors Note: The story is from the book “Migrants’ Stories, Migrants’ Voices 3" published by the Philippine Migrants Rights Watch (PMRW) with the support from CEI (Conferenza Episcopale Italiana) or the Italian Bishops' Conference. The book contains a collection of 12 stories of the realities of migration as faced by Filipinos abroad and their family members in the Philippines. abs-cbnNEWS.com obtained permission from PMRW to publish the stories online.

On Wednesday, the now-famous SEAL Team Six conducted another high-profile operation, rescuing two hostages in Somalia. Ryan Zinke, a politician and former Team Six commander, says as the military and conflicts evolve, these sorts of actions will become more common.

Navy SEAL Team Six was responsible for killing Osama bin Laden.

They shot and killed pirates on a small boat a great distance away, in order to rescue hostages. And on Wednesday, the team, more properly known as the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group, added to its legend by swooping in on a Somali pirate den and rescuing two hostages, an American and a Dane. In the process, they killed nine pirates without losing the life of a single SEAL or hostage.

Ryan Zinke, a Montana state senator and former member of SEAL Team Six, said these sort of raids may be the future of the American military around the world.

"The idea is to make pirates, Al Qaeda, anybody operating in the lawless territory of Somalia, feel like there is no safe territory," Zinke said. "Even if you're on land, you're not necessarily safe."

Zinke said he thinks these sorts of operations are perfect for the SEALs and will become more important, though he's not so excited about an individual team being identified as being behind the operation.

"I think U.S. special operations is the right term to use," Zinke said.

The operation, which came immediately after President Barack Obama heaped praise on the military during the State of the Union address, has presented a modest benefit to Obama's standing.

Zinke, a Republican, said the political nature of the announcement, by the White House, made him uneasy.

"The military is not political. When I was a commander, it didn't matter whether I was a Republican or Democrat. It was about the mission," Zinke said. "But we live in a different world...the media, the speed of the media and the availability of technology online, is a game changer. The amount of information that's available out there either by the military itself or other means, is pretty different water than what we've been in before."

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By Jon Huggins, Special to CNN

Editor's note: Jon Huggins is the director of the Oceans Beyond Piracy project at One Earth Future. The Oceans Beyond Piracy project encourages close cooperation across the international maritime community to develop long-term, sustainable solutions to piracy. He previously served as NATO's operational liaison officer to the European Union Council Secretariat in Brussels.

(CNN) -- The U.S. Navy Seals' dramatic rescue of Poul Hagen Thisted and Jessica Buchanan early Wednesday ended the hostages' three-month ordeal in Somalia. But why was it left to the United States to conduct this operation in a country thousands of miles away?

The short answer is that the United States has the military and intelligence capabilities to conduct the rescue of a U.S. citizen in pressing need of medical attention.

The longer answer is that Somalia lacks the capacity to suppress piracy and other organized crime without international support. This is evidenced by the failed attempt of Somali forces to rescue a Danish family in March 2011, where, as has so often been the case, local authorities found themselves outgunned by the organized criminals.

There are no Somali agencies that can effectively fight piracy and other crimes in Somalia, which has existed under a relatively impotent Transitional Federal Government since the central government collapsed in 1991. Most of Somalia is a patchwork of quasi-autonomous regions, across which neither governance nor law enforcement is coordinated.

While most nations recognize the transitional government in Mogadishu as the legitimate government of Somalia, its reach is extremely limited. Local administrations are thus left to manage issues of organized crime with little resources or support. The result: Citizens exist in a precarious truce with a well-armed and organized criminal element.

It is in this context of lawlessness that the United States opted to take direct action to release these two hostages. But such heroic and high-profile moves, by the United States or any other nation equipped for them, are not a long-term solution to Somalia's plague of organized crime, now spilling across borders. To break this cycle of crime, the international community must step up its commitment to investing in Somali stability and addressing the symptoms of the nation's governance vacuum.

A recent report by the Center for American Progress estimated that $9 billion in humanitarian and development aid went into Somalia over the past 20 years. This is a stark contrast to the billions that piracy costs the world each year. A forthcoming One Earth Future report finds that $7 billion was spent on measures to address Somali piracy alone in 2011.

If the international community does not shift toward building sustainable Somali law enforcement capabilities at sea and ashore, the only realistic options to resolve hostage situations will continue to be through military action or ransom payments.

Among the ways money used to combat piracy is spent:

1. International Navies support operations to patrol Somali waters and the Western Indian Ocean.

2. Nations fund suspect and prisoner transfer arrangements and "outsourcing" of prosecution within the region, as well as Europe, North America and Asia. (Even more will be spent to incarcerate convicted pirates.)

3. The maritime industry spends billions on armed guards, extra insurance, "ship hardening" and re-routing.

4. Shipping companies pay expensive ransoms, if other measures fail.

Somali criminal elements have proven themselves to be amazingly resilient and adaptable. And we can expect that this rescue may lead to an even greater escalation of violence and corresponding threats to innocent human life, including the estimated 190 hostages held (one of whom is a recently captured American writer) and the thousands of seafarers who continue to transit this dangerous area.

Indeed, the violence has been increasing as pirates confront private security teams and aggressive naval actions. They have changed their tactics to separate and conceal hostages and are re-investing ransom funds into criminal enterprises. Gangs are also becoming more sophisticated. Hostage takers now demonstrate a familiarity with international law that prohibits negotiation with international terrorist groups. Groups labeled as terrorists simply sell their hostages to middlemen who can legally negotiate.

Yet there has been surprisingly little investment from the international maritime community in a sustainable solution, although for a brief time last fall it appeared there might be a ray of hope. When the radical Islamist group, Al-Shabaab withdrew from Mogadishu in early fall 2011, many saw this as an opportunity to reinvigorate efforts to stabilize Somalia.

In September, key regional leaders from Somalia adopted a "Somali Roadmap" to improve security, the constitution, reconciliation and good governance. But with a fractured political system and roiling conflict between the country's regions, implementation has been slow.

Now the world's eyes are turning to a high-level conference to be convened by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron in London on February 23 aimed at tackling the root causes of the problems in Somalia, including piracy. We can only hope that this conference will set the stage for a coordinated and forward-looking international effort that engages all the stakeholders in Somalia and looks past the symptoms.

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It will increase its piracy risk surcharge by $100

Mediterranean Shipping Co. said it will put a new piracy surcharge into effect on containers it transports between ports in South Africa and East Africa beginning in March.

The Geneva-based carrier said it is implementing the surcharge because "piracy activities are becoming more and more aggressive, consequently the insurance costs on the vessels to the region have become prohibitive." MSC said the increasing incidence of hijacking has forced it to improve the means of defense against piracy, including special routes and extra high speed to bypass the area.

It will increase its piracy risk surcharge by $100 per 20-foot equivalent unit to $230 per TEU on cargo carried from and to South Africa to and from East Africa, including the ports of Dar Es Salaam, Tanga, Zanzibar, Mombasa and Nacala.

The new piracy risk surcharge will be effective on March 2 with the departure of the MSC Jasmine from Durban that same day, and the departure of the MSC RICKMERS from Nacala. MSC has already increased the freight rate on shipments between east and South Africa by $300 per TEU as of Feb. 5 because of what it called "various local problems" that were causing its vessels to experience "a major increase in costs."'

Source: Journal of Commerce

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What does a Maritime Security Operator (MSO) need to know? It’s something most former service personnel will ask themselves before trying to get into the maritime security industry and it’s a big question. The answer comes from organisations such as 3rg, a specialist security and training firm who are at the forefront of security certification.

To get a better idea of just what they do, I spent a day with them and sat in on one of their Maritime Security Operator courses. Normally a three-day course, the event on Wednesday had been specially tailored for Vessel Protection Team leaders and, as a result, 3rg had compressed the normal three-day course into a one-day refresher, since the Team Leaders (TLs) in question were hugely experienced maritime security operatives with scores of transits behind them and more practical experience in the High Risk Zone than you could ever wish for.

The course itself is normally aimed at newcomers to the world of marsec and covers all of the topics necessary to give an operative a good grounding in not only Somali piracy but also the wider duties and responsibilities facing a counter piracy operator whilst at sea. It has been designed to replace the Ship’s Security Officers’ Course, which many in the industry believe lacks relevance with respect to anti-piracy duties, and allows armed maritime security personnel to work within Best Management Practice 4 (BMP4) and the International Maritime Organisation’s interim guidance on the use of privately contracted armed security personnel (PCASP) 1405 document.

The beginning of the course covered the definition of piracy and pirate tactics before focussing on the extremely important issues of the use of force, escalation of force, international law and the UN Law of the Sea, the related IMO documents and the potential actions MSOs can take.

Despite being condensed, the course still took time to focus on the practicalities of working onboard merchant vessels, from watch duties and responsibilities and the legal issues arising from littoral waters and those on the high seas. Of particular interest to me was the section on basic navigation, which gives attendees the chance to brush up on their plotting and bearings, before moving on to the use of radar and its applications in counter-piracy work in terms of identification and risk analysis. The various security systems onboard vessels were covered in detail, although given the experience levels of the assembled TLs, the section on citadels and their safe use was somewhat glossed over. The full course goes in to far greater detail, as it’s pitched at a ‘beginner’ level and the three-day duration allows the course leader to spend much more time on each subject.

At the end of the day, the TLs sat their exam and all passed with flying colours, receiving a certificate from 3rg. Although not classed as a professional qualification, the certificate shows any potential client or employer that the MSO in question has sought to improve their knowledge and experience in the field.

There’s no doubt that courses like the one run by 3rg offer newcomers to the industry a valuable grounding in maritime security, and it’s good to see that comprehensive training is available to a rapidly growing sector of the maritime industry.

For more details, please visit www.3rg.co.uk or call them on +44 (0)20 7887 6191.

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Three months ago, two aid workers helping to clear land mines out of Somalia were captured by local pirates. Jessica Buchanan, a 32-year-old American, and Danish citizen Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, had been held for ransom ever since. Efforts by the Danish government to secure their release were unsuccessful. At some point over the last few months - when exactly is unclear - the United States developed intelligence on their location, and also discovered that Ms. Buchanan was suffering from an undisclosed illness. With her condition deteriorating, U.S. President Barack Obama decided to attempt a military rescue. SEAL Team 6, the same unit that took out Osama bin Laden, was chosen for the job. On Tuesday night, they got it done.

The hostages were both rescued safely and the 12 pirates guarding them were all dealt with swiftly: Nine were killed when the SEALs moved in, with three captured and taken prisoner. No U.S. troops were killed and the hostages have been evacuated to a nearby U.S. military base. This is exactly what needs to happen, as much as intelligence and circumstances permit, every time a Western citizen is abducted and held for ransom.

For years, Somali pirates have roamed the seas off the Horn of Africa, seizing ships for their crews and cargo, and waiting for insurance companies or corporations to pay out huge ransoms. Gradually, however, shipping companies adapted to the risk, and began putting heavily armed private security teams on their boats, sticking close to warships, or avoiding the piracy-afflicted waters entirely. Military forces in the area also have been much more assertive in dealing with any pirates they encounter.

That has led some of these pirate groups to begin seeking Westerners on land. In September, for example, a British couple at a beach resort in Kenya were attacked by al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali militants. The husband was shot dead and the wife taken prisoner. She remains captive. And according to the Associated Press, there are at least three other known Western hostages being held in Somalia at the moment: Two Spanish doctors, also abducted in Kenya, and an American journalist, seized while working in Somalia.

The explanation given for such crimes is always the same - even when Islamist terror cells are involved: It's about the money. The hefty ransoms can either pay off a crew of hired guns (while enriching their boss) or support anti-government operations by terror groups. And the West has generally paid up, or has at least had someone pay up on our behalf.

But this just feeds the cycle: The more money is handed over for hostages, the more hostages are likely to be taken. The Somali gangs are clearly intent on continuing this criminal scheme.

That's why Barack Obama's decision this week to send Navy SEALs into Somalia to rescue Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted was the right one. Beyond that welcome humanitarian outcome, the mission sends the message that going after Westerners means having Westerners come after you. Both France and the United States have large military bases in the region, and they should be used - not only as hostage-rescue launch points, but also as staging areas for air strikes against the criminal bosses who profit off these crimes (Helpful tip: Drop smart bombs on the guys with the nice cars in heavily guarded compounds).

Military power by itself will never be enough to put an end to piracy and kidnapping rings, but it can at least change the calculus for those who seek to profit by abducting Western citizens.

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Pirates Seek Revenge; Another American Held

By SHIINE OMAR, MOHAMED BEERDHIGE

Tuesday night's successful rescue of two hostages by US Navy SEALs was conducted through the use of the Galkayo airport, based in Somalia's Mudug region. One airport official who spoke to Somalia Report on the condition of anonymity described the operation.

"Around 9:30pm on Tuesday night some US military soldiers arrived at the airport and proceeded to secure it. We knew they were going to use our airport, but did not know why," explained the official.

"Then at approximately 10:00pm local time eight US military helicopters and one passenger plane landed at the airport. After staying there for three hours, two of the helicopters went south of Galkayo while others remained the airport. Then they went many times to the coastline and back," he said.

The two helicopters flew to south to a compound near Cadaado (Adado) and arrived back at the airport around 4:00am. What is now known is that the helicopters were part of the Navy's successful rescue mission of American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Thisted, who had been kidnapped by gunmen in October of last year while they were working for the Danish Demining Group.

"The operation was completed by morning prayers and the airport workers were not allowed to leave until it was over. By 10:00am all the US military helicopters and the passenger plane left Galkayo airport. They used our airport for about 12-13 hours. When the US military was in control of the Galkayo airport, it looked like a prison," said the official.

He added that the regional leaders of Puntland and Galmudug knew about the operation. Galmudug's President Mohamed Ahmed Alin, however, denied knowledge of the event.

"We didn’t know have any thing about operation. We only heard it was is done by US military. They didn’t inform us, but we heard about it on Wednesday morning. Yes, they used Galkayo airport but it is not controlled by Galmudug," said Galmudug's president.

Puntland's media outlet, Garowe online, reported that, "Puntland authorities were involved in the operation to free the two hostages. Puntland Security Forces had secured Galkayo airport late Tuesday night before the US Navy SEALs and their helicopters touched down at Galkayo."

Galkayo is a city divided in half with the southern section controlled by Galmudug and the northern section, where the airport sits, is controlled by Mudug. In November of last year, the airport was bombarded with artillery due to a bitter clan battle.

Puntland officials refused to comment on the mission.

Another American Held

Meanwhile, efforts to free another American kidnapped by gunmen in Galkayo, Michael Scott Moore, are underway, according to Galmudug's president who spoke to Somalia Report this evening.

President Calin said they are on the way to securing the release of Mr. Moore who is being held in Wirig village, 60km from Hobyo district of Mudug region.

"We are heading to a forested area near Camaara district, which is controlled by Himan and Heeb administration, because the pirates are hiding the journalist in that area. We contacted the pirates who kidnapped Mr. Moore to ask them to release him peacefully and safely because we do not want to attack them. We are worried that if we attack, harm will come to Mr. Moore. We are negotiating with them," said the president. He added that if pirates ignore their advice, force will be used against them.

Pirates Seeking Revenge

Meanwhile a Somali pirate, Mr. Mu’min, based in Harardere district told Somalia Report that they will seek revenge for the deaths of their fellow pirates by the US forces. He claimed the military killed nine and arrested five pirates during the rescue operation.

"We are now going to target vessels with Americans. When we find them, we will kill them. We don't plan to ransom them because they killed our colleagues which we are from same tribe. They were our friends," said the pirate.

This article was posted by Neptune Maritime Security with the kind permission of SomaliaReport.com. To find out more, please visit www.neptunemaritimesecurity.com

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