Since June 19, Somalia’s pirates have not successfully taken any vessel hostage, and since June 26, they have not even tried to carry out a hijack.
This marks the longest unbroken stretch of peaceful shipping off Somalia since piracy emerged as a major menace in 2007, and the drop has been attributed to a greater use of armed guards on ships, international naval patrols, and the bad weather.
“This is traditionally a quiet time for pirate attacks, but there have still always been a handful [of] incidences even during the monsoon months of July and August,” says Cyrus Mody at the IMB’s office in Britain.
“However since June 26 this year, we have seen no activity whatsoever in the southern Red Sea, theGulf of Aden, the Gulf of Arabia, or the Somali Basin.”
This is already after a 60 percent reduction in pirate attacks in the first six months of 2012 compared to the same stretch last year, from 163 incidents to 69. Despite this, Somali pirates still hold as many as 191 crew and up to 14 merchant vessels and fishing boats.
“We’ve learned a lot about piracy and we’re being a great deal more proactive in disrupting their activities,” says Rear Adm. Duncan Potts, operational commander of the European Union’s anti-piracy mission, Operation Atalanta.MORE
For more than two decades, Somalia has been ravaged by a civil war that has left the country with no functioning central banking system and an income per person only a little over $200 a year, according to the World Bank.
Somali-Americans in Minnesota and other states rely on small m
oney services businesses to funnel money to their relatives in Somalia.
oney services businesses to funnel money to their relatives in Somalia.
But many U.S. banks stopped hosting accounts for those businesses because U.S. laws, starting with the Patriot Act, made them potentially liable if money ended up in the hands of al Shabaab. The U.S. State Department designated al Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization in 2008.
Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and TCF Bank stopped providing account services in recent years.
Sunrise Community Banks stopped at the end of 2011, and others have dropped out since, adding to the concerns of Somali-Americans in Minnesota, home to the largest Somali population in the United States at about 34,500, according to census data.
Maryama Abdi, speaking through an interpreter at the Karmel mall in south Minneapolis, said she sent up to $150 a month to family in Somalia using money transfer businesses.
People survive “because of the exchange connections and the money we are sending,” Abdi said. “They can use it to buy milk.”
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