NATO to Send Six-Ship Force to Fight Somali Piracy

NATO will send more naval firepower to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia, agreeing to dispatch six ships to protect sea lanes that handle a tenth of the world’s trade. A “short gap” may ensue between the departure of the current five-ship fleet on June 28 and the arrival of the new task force, North Atlantic Treaty Organization spokesman James Appathurai told a Brussels press conference today.

“We’ve decided to make the NATO maritime standing group available for counterpiracy to complement the many other assets that are doing this job off the Horn of Africa,” U.K. Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said.

Attacks by armed gangs operating from safe havens in Somalia soared to 114 so far this year, topping the figure for all of 2008, NATO said. Pirates seized 29 merchant ships, making the seas off the violence-scarred country the world’s most treacherous.

Allied defense ministers will formally sign off on the new stopgap mission today, NATO said.

Warships from the U.S., Portugal, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain make up the current task force, cobbled together from a group that is normally used for routine exercises and port visits.

The follow-up force consisted as of May 4 of ships from the U.S., U.K., Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey. It will patrol for an undetermined period, while the 28-nation alliance wrestles over legal questions such as the treatment of captive pirates before conducting a “longer-term” mission, Appathurai said.

NATO, EU Ships
NATO and European Union ships police a swathe of water about four times the size of France along with a U.S.-led task force and gunboats from Russia, China, India and Malaysia that operate independently.

“NATO forces will continue to work with the European Union and other nations to fight piracy,” Spanish Defense Minister Carme Chacon said.

The EU force last month widened its patrols as far as the Seychelles islands as the clampdown on Somalia’s coastal waters drives pirates further out to sea.

Germany will send a ship with the NATO task force, while capping its deployments under the NATO and EU flags at 1,400 soldiers and sailors, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said.

Fight Piracy
“It’s in our interest that we effectively fight piracy, in the interest of free trade and security on the seas,” Jung said.

Put on the defensive by the naval buildup, pirates have started attacking at night and may be moving from the Gulf of Aden to the southern Red Sea to prey on commercial vessels, the U.S. Navy warned this week.

Using Somalia as a base, gangs that seize commercial ships often hold them for ransom, as when they extorted $43,000 for the release of the 11 crew members of a Nigerian oil field tugboat on June 6 after a 10-month ordeal.

Reeling from 18 years of civil war, Somalia is struggling to establish a functioning government and cope with 1 million refugees and 3.2 million people without adequate food, according to the United Nations.

Source: Bloomberg