Counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden declared a success: EU Naval commander

Well, here's one way to put a positive spin on the current situation in the seas off the Horn of Africa: Rear Admiral Peter Hudson, operational commander of the European Union's Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) in the region, today told journalists in Kenya that the military efforts to deal with piracy off the Somali coast have been successful. Beneath the headline "Operation to fight piracy a success", Nairobi-based media outlet The Nation has the British Royal Navy officer referring to the fact that there have been no successful hijackings of vessel in the Gulf of Aden since the end of July. The last officially reported seizure in the Gulf was the Turkish-owned cargo ship MV Horizon-1, captured on July 8 and released by Somali pirates on October 5, after a ransom reported to be at least $1.5 million was paid.

RAdm Hudson went on to say that over 50 vessels and 300,000 tonnes of food have been safely escorted through the Gulf by naval forces. Part of the EU NAVFOR's mandate is to protect humanitarian aid shipments intended to help alleviate the situation ashore in Somalia.

While the British commander's perspectives might be technically correct in terms of the decrease in successful pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden/Red Sea waters, it seems a bit early to categorize the broader situation in the region in the same way. Not that the admiral is saying so verbatim in the report, and perhaps some of the blame for this positive spin comes from the writer of the post getting carried away, with an opening line that goes, "The military operation targeting piracy off the Somali coast has been termed a success."

But coming within days of the seizure of the supertanker Maran Centaurus and other recent attacks - successful ones, no less - off the eastern coast of Somalia, it does seem a tad odd to hype the situation in the north while pirate operations have clearly been shifted into the western Indian Ocean. Piracy off Somalia is a bigger problem than just the Gulf of Aden. Anyone remember a certain (premature) "Mission Accomplished" incident?

US-bound supertanker seized by Somali pirates

MV Maran Centaurus
(photo: Joao Quaresma, vesseltracker.com)

In the most audacious attack of the year, Somali pirates have captured the supertanker Marana Centaurus yesterday as it was sailing in the Indian Ocean about 600 nautical miles (800 miles) northeast of the Seychelles. According to the initial EU NAVFOR note posted this afternoon, the Greek-flagged tanker was headed for New Orleans from the Saudi-port of Jiddah, on the Red Sea, at the time of the hijacking. According to the Times Online, the vessel was boarded by nine pirates who overpowered the crew of 28 (15 Filipinos, 9 Greeks, 2 Ukrainians and one Romanian). The tanker's crew were unarmed and there were no security personnel aboard. EU NAVFOR says the supertanker is currently making course towards Somalia, possibly to Haradheere or Hobyo, and is being followed by a Greek warship that happened to be in the region with the European Union counter-piracy operation.

The seizure of the Maran Centaurus and her crew comes one year after another supertanker - the Saudi-owned Sirius Star - was captured by Somali pirates. That earlier incident began on November 15, 2008, as the Sirius Star was in the same general area en route to the U.S. with two million barrels of crude, and wasn't resolved until January 9 of this year, following the payment of a $3 million ransom.

According to Bloomberg.com and the BBC, the Maran Centaurus was fully laden when boarded yesterday, and also has the capacity to carry two million barrels of crude. Tankers of this size cannot transit the Suez Canal while fully laden, so they must still take the long way around southern Africa to reach markets. The attack yesterday may be the furthest from shore carried out by pirates, who have been increasing their range by using motherships and better intelligence to augment their weaponry and nautical skills.

The captive crew of the supertanker now join more than 250 other individuals currently being held by Somali pirates (and around a dozen vessels). There is currently no word of what the ransom demands are on the part of the pirates. However, it can be expected to be high, likely the highest so far requested.

As I wrote two weeks ago, the financial stakes have already been raised by the paying of a hefty ransom to free the Spanish fishing boat Alakrana, which was released after the pirates received about $3.5 million, a higher sum than was paid to release the supertanker Sirius Star in January. Supply and demand, pirate inflation, whatever you call it, the amounts being paid to Somali pirates keep going up. In that earlier post, I also offered the idea that we would see a $10 million ransom demanded - and paid - before next Spring. Perhaps I should have said before the end of the year?

UPDATE: According to the Louisiana-based Nola.com site, the tanker was not headed for New Orleans, as earlier reported. Instead, the Maran Centaurus was supposed to deliver its cargo of crude to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), a fuel delivery platform located about 18 miles south of Grand Isle, in the Gulf of Mexico. On a good day, LOOP takes in about ten percent all the petroleum imported into the United States, or a million barrels (US daily imports of petroleum total just shy of 10 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Administration). That means the crude oil aboard the captured supertanker represents a fifth of daily American imports. The oil has been valued at just over $20 million.

Addendum: The BBC implies that one reason the Maran Centaurus was able to be boarded was she could not steam very fast due to her full load of crude, being only able to make "between 11-15 knots". This is not completely corrrect. The ship's particulars on the website of a broker affiliated with her owners show the top speed of the Maran Centaurus is only 15 knots, so she may have been going as fast as she was able when attacked.

The escalation of piracy off the Horn of Africa

This week has seen a number of notable developments related to piracy in the Horn of Africa (HoA) region, with at least six attacks carried out since Monday. Two of those were attempts to seize vessels sailing about a thousand nautical miles from the African coast - the furthest out any such incidents have yet been reported. But there have also been other events in Somalia itself and in Europe which may reveal we are entering a new phase in the the battle between these maritime criminals and those seeking to stem the rising tide of incidents.

Yesterday saw the assassination of a Somali judge known for having sentenced to jail pirates and members of the al-Shabaab Islamist group. Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aware was shot dead by two masked men in the northern city of Bossaso, likely having incurred the wrath of any number of enemies he had made sitting as a judge in the semi-autonomous Puntland region. (A second lawmaker was also killed yesterday in the region by a gunman.) The need for stronger judicial powers for Somali authorities is vital in dealing with piracy and his killing is clearly an attempt to silence those within Somalia seeking to restore law and order to the country.

Also on Wednesday, the Spanish defence minister announced she would be asking the European Union to have its naval forces enforce a blockade on Somali ports known to be used as pirate havens. Carme Chacon will present this proposal to EU ministers meeting early next week and, if implemented, would mean bringing some of the naval assets in the region closer to shore. This would reduce the presence of warships available to patrol the seas off the HoA, unless additional assets arrive to fill the gap, something that may not necessarily make mariners sailing in the region happy.

The Spanish proposal pushes the battle closer to the pirates' homeports, a containment theory that might lead some to wonder if land-based operations might follow. "Boots on the ground" does not necessarily follow, though, as there is little international consensus on sending troops into Somalia itself in order to reduce the operational capabilities of pirate gangs and their sponsors. Even a naval blockade of Somali ports would require a cautious political approach, for if there is any interruption in the maritime trade that still goes on in and out of those towns, locals could become more incensed about the international community's actions.

Minister Chacon is also quoted by AFP as calling upon the international community to do more to deal with the money-end of pirate operations. She says that the Somali criminals, "[H]ave ties to sophisticated law firms in London," though whether she wants these firms to be shut down or more closely monitored is not explained.

Pirate gangs in Somali are none to happy with the Spaniards right now, as there are two suspects currently being held in Spain and awaiting trial on criminal charges relating to the hijacking of the Spanish fishing boat Alakrana back in early October. The pirates holding the crew of the Alakrana are demanding the release of their brethren - as well as a reported $3 million ransom - altering the previous system in which gangs seized vessels purely for the money. Asking for the release of suspected pirates seized by foreign nations complicates things (as a recent Time.com article makes clear).

J. Peter Pham has a lengthy and incisive article posted today at Family Security Matters that details many of the new developments and the potential that the entire situation is getting more complicated, possibly presaging an escalation in the piracy threat off the HoA. His piece makes for sobering reading, as he points out the inability of international naval forces to more effectively work together to stem the tide of attacks this year, and the possibility that Somali pirate gangs may have been using the quiet summer months to consolidate their various operations. In effect, he is saying that the pirates may have developed new operational capabilities while the international community has not. He wraps up his article by wondering just how long the EU can continue to maintain its counter-piracy mission in the region - Operation Atalanta - which costs about $450 million a year to do. And remember the EU Force is not the only one in the region.

The assassination of government officials, pressure to release indicted pirate suspects, better coordination among pirate gangs and wider operational area - combined with increasingly burdensome financial and logistical costs on the international community's part - do not bode well for the months ahead. The onus is now on concerned governments and their military forces to find more effective means to combat piracy in the region, and to do it quickly, because the way we've been trying to deal with pirates hasn't worked.

Another busy weekend for Somali pirates

There were a number of incidents in the seas off East Africa the past few days, including the hijacking of a European-owned bulk carrier and a UAE-owned cargo ship, both on Saturday. (There is some confusion about the bulker ownership, with sources like the BBC reporting it to be British-owned, while AFP says it is Greek-owned with a British shipping agent. Fairplay reports today that it is British. The crew are all Ukranian and the vessel was seized some 250 n.m. southwest of the Seychelles.)

On Sunday, French naval forces captured 11 suspected pirates in waters about halfway between Kenya and the Seychelles, seizing a 10-metre long vessel - probably a mother ship - and two smaller skiffs. According to Fairplay, "further treatment of the suspects is yet to be decided."

Finally, a South Korean warship came to the aid of a North Korean freighter that was being stalked by pirates in the gulf of Aden. The Times Online says that snipers in a South Korean naval helicopter helped scare off the attackers, a remarkably rare event when you consider that the two Koreas are still technically at war with one another. (This brings to mind an incident back in November of 2007, when a US Navy destroyer responded to a distress call from another North Korean vessel that had been boarded by pirates.)

It's interesting to note the activity in the waters around the Seychelles, an area of sea that is not a prone to the summer monsoon winds that plague the northern part of the region. Might Somali pirates be thinking of shifting more of their operations into this part of the Indian Ocean in the coming months, to avoid any weather-influenced disruptions?

Meanwhile, the naval elements currently patrolling the western side of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden look to be extending and augmenting their missions. Canada has announced that HMCS Winnipeg will be staying in the region until early June as part of the frigate's commitment to Standing NATO Maritime Group One. And a Greek frigate has arrived to join with the European Union Naval Force ATALANTA. That force now comprises 8 frigates, a patrol boat and two support vessels from spain, Germany, France, Italy and Greece.

Photos below are of HMCS Winnipeg and are from the DND Combat Camera team. Take a look at the last one, in particular. It gives you an excellent view of a pirate skiff and their boarding gear.

HMCS Winnipeg in the Indian Ocean
(photo: Warrant Officer Carole Morissette, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)

Canadians rarely forget the hockey playoffs, even when patrolling the Gulf of Aden

(photo: Warrant Officer Carole Morissette, CF Combat Camera)

Pirate skiff, Gulf of Aden, April 18, 2009
(photo: MCorporal David Tillotson, Air Detachment HMCS Winnipeg, CF Combat Camera)

NATO vessels deploying to the Horn of Africa

As pirates continue to attack vessels off the Horn of Africa, NATO is dispatching the newest incarnation of one of its standing maritime groups - SNMG1 - to the region. Operation Allied Protector will see warships from the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal take part in counter-piracy patrols. SNMG1 is commanded by the Portuguese Navy's Rear Admiral Pereira de Cunha.

SNMG1 is expected to be on station in the Indian Ocean in April. The European and American elements are currently completing exercises in the western Mediterranean, while the Canadian component - HMCS Winnipeg - is leaving Korea after work ups with the USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group a couple of weeks ago.

The impending arrival of SNMG1 coincides with the waning months of the Spring piracy season in the region. Once the summer monsoon winds arrive, the mostly Somali pirates will take a break as the seas get too rough for their small attack boats. So the next few months offer the last opportunities to harvest the bounties awaiting them in the seas off East Africa. But the addition of the NATO flotilla will make those seas even more crowded with naval vessels seeking to combat the pirates and does raise the question, "Who's in charge out there?"

SNMG1 joins a European Union force, the American-led "multinational" task force CTF 151, as well as independently operating warships from Russia, China, India and other nations. At the very least you would think with the overlap of NATO, EU and CTF 151 there would be a more efficient means of deploying vessels within a single chain of command from countries like the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. And though no one would expect Russia or China to place their warships within the NATO or EU operations, why hasn't CTF 151 been able to coalesce into a more productive anti-piracy entity?

France captures pirates as Kenya agrees to prosecute suspects

French frigate Le Floréal in the Gulf of Aden

January 8, 2009 (photo: AFP/Stephane de Sakutin)

Yesterday, personnel from a French naval frigate came to aid of a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden that was being attacked by pirates. According to Le Monde, the warship Le Floréal dispatched a helicopter that helped deter the attack on the freighter African Ruby, after which the frigate was able to stop the two skiffs being used by the suspected pirates and apprehend nine men. The warship is in the region as part of the EU NAVFOR Somalia (operation Atalanta). Although Le Monde's report and a press release from the Ministry of Defense are only available in French, you can find more info by checking out other sites, such as EagleSpeak.

French soldiers training aboard frigate Le Floréal,
January 16, 2009 (photo: AFP/Stephane de Sakutin)

With the capture of these nine, France has now managed to apprehend 57 suspects in seven anti-piracy operations mounted since last April. Some have been flown to France, where they are currently awaiting trial, while others have been released to Somali authorities in Puntland. By coincidence, yesterday also saw the news that Kenya and the United States have signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow any suspected pirates captured by American forces to be prosecuted by Kenyan authorities.

At a news conference at the American Embassy in Nairobi, prime minister Raila Odinga said that Kenya's economy is suffering from piracy in the area, as it drives up insurance premiums on vessels trading into the country. This is making his government become more engaged with foreign naval forces patrolling the seas off East Africa. "Piracy is a serious threat to security in our part of the world," said Odinga, "And, therefore, we say that we are going to cooperate with the international community to deal with this issue of piracy."

Kenya has already reached a similar agreement with Great Britain.

Photos below are of suspected pirates with members of Le Floréal's boarding party. More can be seen at Fred Fry blog, or at the source: EMA/Ministry of Defense, Paris.