The piracy is a global problem that needs local solution.

by Ismail A Mohamed
Saturday, May 14, 2011

advertisements

The recent anti-piracy conference in Dubai in which representative of more than 50 countries attended highlights the significance of the problem, however the bewildering, peculiar and opaque policies of International community have failed to find a solution to this problem over the years.

Like the previous conferences Somali voices, organizations and NGOs are mainly ignored, how is it possible to find a solution if you do not value the ideas of the indigenous people who are the inhabitants of the land and do not tackle the root causes of the problem as well as its source.

Only last month the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded 97 attacks off the Coast of Somalia the first quarter of this year. It has become multimillion dollar profit making business for many industries including Insurance, security and defense companies, even the giant defense company BAE is developing a third generation lesser gun that can blind the pirates up to six hours.

The Piracy problem requires local solution and grass roots level approach which is:
·         To support coastal communities with the development projects, any future projects to depend on the progress they make in tackling piracy with in their communities.
·         To give the Somali fishermen preferential market access where they can sell their catch.
·         To train unemployed local youth and former pirates to become coastal guards in order to deter the pirates launching any attacks from inland.
·         To empower local elders and local authorities to give them resource that they need to fight with the pirates.

If a fraction of what foreign navies that patrol Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean is spent locally the piracy problem could have been solved easily years ago. I wrote an article titled the root causes of piracy and radicalism in Somalia in 2009 since then the piracy increased and radicals are more power than the government.

Ismail A. Mohamed
E-mail: [email protected]

Home
Email

Hiiraan Online