Hijacking pirates exploit regional chaos to return to seas off Somalia

A Marinha Indiana recupera o MV Ruen, um navio maltês, dos piratas somalienses ao largo da costa indiana em março de 2024, após um sequestro de três meses. Fotografia: Indian Navy X/AFP/AFP/Getty ImagesVisualizar imagem em tela cheia A Marinha Indiana recupera o MV Ruen, um navio maltês, dos piratas somalienses ao largo da costa indiana em março de 2024, após um sequestro de três meses.

Photograph: Indian Navy X/AFP/AFP/Getty ImagesSomaliaHijacking pirates exploit regional chaos to return to seas off SomaliaUS-Israel war on Iran and political instability in Somalia lead to pirates targeting cargo ships off Horn of Africa.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleThe scourge of Somali piracy targeting cargo ships and smaller dhows off the Horn of Africa has returned to levels not seen in a decade, driven by a convergence of factors including disruptions to the shipping industry caused by the US-Israeli war against Iran and a resurgence of political instability in Somalia.

Since late April there have been eight hijackings by Somali pirates, including two within the space of a fortnight in August: one targeting an oil tanker with ties to Iran, the other a Cameroon-flagged vessel, the Lutuf, carrying military equipment for Turkey.

Os ataques só cessaram depois que uma força anti-pirataria multinacional foi implantada.

View image in fullscreenArmed Somali pirates guard the beach in Hobyo district, 540km north-east of Mogadishu, in 2008. Photograph: Badri Media/epa/CorbisThe hijacking of the Lutuf was the most high-profile of the recent incidents.

Turquia está expandindo sua influência na Somália após um acordo assinado em 2024 para fortalecer sua marinha, e a libertação do Lutuf, duas semanas após sua captura, envolveu uma operação conjunta turco-somali que resultou na destruição de quatro embarcações piratas.

View image in fullscreenMembers of Somalia Puntland maritime police force on duty in 2023. Photograph: Daniel Irungu/EPAIn a comment for the Center for Maritime Security in July, Matthew Reisener, the thinktank’s national security adviser, warned that naval campaigns by Iran in the strait of Hormuz and Iran’s Houthi proxies in the Red Sea – launched in response to the US-Israel war on Iran – are allowing regional piracy “to once again thrive”.

According to Reisener, about 70% of maritime traffic that passed through the Red Sea prior to the Houthis’ targeting of ships there is now being rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in May reached a similar conclusion: “The recent deterioration of maritime security followed a prolonged period of relative calm in the waters off the Somali coast, which resulted in the redeployment of international anti-piracy fleets and the relaxation of commercial risk-management practices.

These factors – alongside the distraction posed by Houthi attacks in the Red Sea – have converged to create an opening that Somali pirates have been quick to exploit.”.

Analysts also note that rising oil prices driven by the war have made oil cargoes a more valuable target.

Entre os países menos desenvolvidos do mundo, a Somália tem vivido conflitos e batalhas entre clãs, sem um governo central forte, desde a queda do autocrata Mohamed Siad Barre em 1991.

Insufficient patrol vessels and an inability to regularly pay salaries to those involved in coastal patrols are among the reasons why Somalia has long-struggled to secure its coastline.

View image in fullscreenYemenis protest against Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping. Experts warn that these attacks in response to the US-Israel war on Iran are allowing piracy to thrive.

Fotografia: Anadolu/Getty A pirataria tem historicamente prosperado durante períodos de instabilidade crescente e competição política, facional e regional. Observadores dizem que o recente aumento de incidentes foi agravado por um foco doméstico e internacional no contrabando de armas para o Iêmen por redes que atuam em nome do Irã.

Analysts suggest some of these networks have become increasingly associated with Somalia’s Islamist al-Shabaab group as it once again expands its territorial control in central and southern Somalia and seeks to build ties with the Houthis in Yemen.

Local officials interviewed by the Guardian described how in the recent spate of incidents, pirate groups have been using vessels they had already seized to attack and capture other vessels.

According to the officials, the Lutuf was approached as it sailed three nautical miles from Somali shores near the fishing town of Maraya by a previously hijacked cement carrier, the MV Sward, which had been repurposed as a pirate mothership.

Eight gunmen from the Sward then boarded the Lutuf and were able to overpower the ship’s armed guards.

View image in fullscreenThe MV Sward, a cement carrier hijacked in April, was repurposed as a pirate mothership. Photograph: EU Naval Force Operation AtalantaOfficials say the recent attacks have also been marked by increased technological sophistication on the part of pirate groups, including the use of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service to facilitate the tracking of potential targets and for high-speed communications between pirates.

Isso reflete o que a Lloyd’s List descreveu como uma ameaça de pirataria somaliã cada vez mais “mais capaz e adaptativa”, que já está expondo vulnerabilidades nas medidas de segurança anti-pirataria existentes das transportadoras.

In the weeks since the Lutuf ransom was paid, residents of Galkayo, a commercial hub in the north-central Mudug region, said money had started circulating through the local economy to a much greater degree than before.

Consumption of the stimulant khat has reportedly increased, and greater numbers of expensive sports utility vehicles have been seen on the roads.

View image in fullscreenResidents of Galkayo, Somalia, said money has begun to circulate in the local economy since the hijacking of the Lutuf. Photograph: Gary Calton/The ObserverDuring the previous piracy boom, increased flows of money through the economies of coastal communities and places like Galkayo had profound societal impacts, including an expansion of alcohol and drug use and prostitution.

Talvez antecipando o regime de medidas mais rigorosas que possam ser necessárias para conter a crescente ameaça de pirataria, o Lutuf só foi liberado após uma série de ataques com drones contra os grupos piratas envolvidos na tomada, tanto no mar quanto em terra.

Entre os mortos, estavam nove homens armados que foram abatidos por um míssil disparado por um drone turco enquanto preparavam barcos para se juntar aos atiradores a bordo do Lutuf.

The question now is whether the growing threat can be countered.

Writing in The Conversation in May, the UK-based academics Anja Shortland and Federico Varese, who studied Somalia’s piracy problem in 2014, were uncertain whether there was an international appetite or the capacity for the same sort of anti-piracy force deployed more than a decade ago.

View image in fullscreenSomali pirates apprehended by French soldiers in the Gulf of Aden in 2009. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features“What happens next will depend on how the current hijacks proceed.

Os piratas dependem de resgates para reinvestimento e para atrair jovens para seus contratos de sem ganho, sem taxa. Pagamentos rápidos e generosos… podem libertar os navios capturados.

Mas isso acarretará riscos crescentes para todos os demais.

Em números

• View image in fullscreenArmed Somali pirates guard the beach in Hobyo district, 540km north-east of Mogadishu, in 2008