How Modern Pirates Rule the Sea with Terror

The first picture that comes to your mind when you think of pirates is cool people who know nothing more than the sea, beer and women. Ask any kid who has watched Pirates of the Caribbean and they would probably tell you they want to be a pirate when they grow up.

Romanticism in piracy is only a thing of the movies and the novels though; out there it is real terror. From Sumatra to Somalia piracy is not a lovable trait to possess. In fact world governments are ready to spend a fortune to crush the vice. Modern pirates are ruthless people who prey on weak crews and rob them or hold them for ransom.

Cargo ships and fishing vessels are high targets of the pirates. While cargo may not be of much interest unless one has ready markets, the money that crews carry for exorbitant port fees is. Ransom money that is paid by governments or relatives of the captives is also an attraction to the trade.

Ships can also be stolen, repainted for new identities and ownership changed through fake papers. In such case pirates usually attack a vessel armed with guns, grenades or even rocket launchers. They then leave the hapless crew on a speed boat or canoe or even marooned in some island.

Most pirates attack ships when they slow down to navigate narrow straits. A good example of this is the Strait of Malacca a narrow stretch of waters that spans from western Malaysia to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. When ships slow down, they can easily be overtaken and captured by the use of speed motor boats. 

Piracy in Somalia escalated between 2008 and 2012. Accounts of survivors revealed that these pirates were indeed more dangerous than the ones that we read in history books. They had larger and more sophisticated weapons and considering the lack of a good government ashore, their activities went largely unchecked. Prosecuting the pirates was also very hard and a situation known as Law-Enforcement Vacuum created perfect conditions for the illegal trade to thrive.

Modern piracy is no different from the past in that motives are the same, gaining of goods or valuables that one doesn’t own.

How Somali Piracy came to be

Before the intervention of the African Union forces in Somalia, piracy in the war torn country was a thriving business. It is estimated that from 2011 to 2012 up to $6.9 billion was lost to piracy. Over 199 hostages and 14 ships were held off the Somali coast making the whole issue an international crisis. 

Many of the leaders of the Somali and even the pirates themselves have attributed the situation to a totally different cause. The theft of fish from the Somali coast and the dumping of toxic waste into the area has been blamed for the increased vice over time. 

Most Somali believe that the term pirate should be given to those who come to fish from their territorial waters or dump waste off their coastline. Considering the losses of life and property on the coast of the Gulf of Africa nation one would feel that the claims don’t weigh much. However, every story has two sides.

Piracy has been lucrative for anyone who is ready to get involved. The goods could be smuggled through porous borders into neighboring East African nations where they would fetch a tidy sum. The money would then be invested in businesses like real estate. In 2011 and early 2012 when the business was thriving; property in the real estate rose in Nairobi the Kenyan capital as a result.

To increase their earnings, pirates started kidnapping journalists, tourists and children in Somalia and Kenya for ransom. The money was also used to fund the Al Shabaab in carrying out terrorist attacks in the country and East Africa and that necessitated military action to quell the bloodletting the trade fueled.

The AU forces with help from the international community have helped return sanity to Somalia and the country is now recovering from the effects of a war which is as old as 1991.

Read more about piracy in Somalia here.