By Dan Alexe

EU announced it will keep patrolling for pirates off the coast of Somalia  pirates for two more years, until the end of 2018, as NATO wound up its participation to the mission, with virtually no attacks reported in recent years.

The number of raids and kidnappings has fallen – though maritime officials have warned that the risk is still, underlined by two attempted attacks last month.

NATO said last week it had ended its own mission off the Horn of Africa, as it shifts resources to deterring Russia in the Black Sea and people smugglers in the Mediterranean.

But the EU said it would extend the EUNAVFOR Somalia Operation Atalanta until the end of 2018, allowing it to keep guarding U.N. aid deliveries.

The EU agreed to provide €11 million to fund Atalanta for the next two years.

The mission, which was due to shut down at the end of 2016, typically uses 1,200 personnel, four to six warships and two or three patrolling aircraft provided by EU member states.

In addition to countering pirates, Atalanta also protects World Food Programme vessels and other shipping, monitors fishing off the coast of Somalia and supports other EU missions and programmes in the region.

More than 40 % of the world’s seaborne oil supplies pass through the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, a major shipping lane also used to move exports and commodities such as food between Asia and Europe.

Source: New Europe