By Abdulahi M. Abdulahi, Maritime Lawyer
Somalia is located in the Horn of Africa with the longest mainland coast in the region. The collapse of the central government in 1991 after a 21-year-long military regime resulted in a civil war that left the country incapacitated to govern its affairs for the next nine years. In 2000, A transitional government was formed to address the lawlessness that had gripped Somalia since the fall of the Military Regime. The transition period ended in 2012, however, the maritime security issue remained.
Foreign fishing trawlers began illegally fishing on the Somali seaboard and ships began dumping industrial and other waste off the Somali coast. This led to erosion of the fish stock and local fishermen started to band together to try to protect their resources. An escalation began, leading to weapons being used and tactics such as taking over a foreign ship until their owners paid a ransom. Piracy was already an issue in the 2000s for the international community, this was due to the country’s maritime waters being undefended. However, piracy in Somalia did not start by an accident but as a response to the vessels fishing illegally in the Country’s maritime waters. Foreign vessels are not fishing illegally only but threaten Somali fisheries as they destroy boats, damage their fishing gear, and sometimes cause the death of local fisheries according to the report of the United Nations Secretary-General on Protection of Somali Natural Resources and Waters in 2011.
What is interesting to note is piracy operations and incidents continued to peak from the years of 2006- 2011 and decline from there on, so what caused their sudden appearance in 2023, was that too at a time when the Indian Ocean High-Risk Area (HRA) was lifted. Piracy’s root founders were small-scale fishermen with the need to protect their sources of livelihood that at the time were being exploited by big foreign vessels and trawlers, somewhere along these lines a few individuals realized that this was an untraceable lucrative business since the country’s coast was fair game because of the civil war, the individuals (Pirates) would always come back to the mainland and the maintenance of state territorial sovereignty of 12 nautical miles allows them to have safety, it was the perfect crime and a non-conventional business opportunity.
This was all roses and sunshine until it started affecting international shipping, for context, about 11% of the world’s total petroleum transported by water crosses through the Gulf of Aden which places Somalia right at the center. Hence a disruption in shipping was affecting a lot of businesses, and losses were being incurred. This led to Piracy becoming the first crime that international law recognized as an international crime due to its impact on the world economy. Since 2008, several UNSC resolutions adopted that the international navy could enter Somalia’s territorial waters with consideration of the absence of the Somalia Navy. However, these resolutions did not attract many followers while many States criticized the legality of these resolutions as it would consequently affect the sovereignty of States and give space to changes in other components of the international convention which was put in place to protect states from one another.
The argument and narrative in Somalia’s population remain that Pirates are not criminals but rather fishermen exercising their rights to protect their livelihood and their maritime waters in the absence of a government with the capability to protect it. This narrative has a good following and belief in the local context which is triggered by the lack of justice in administering rulings on the crime and even for those prosecuted under the crime. Legally it questions the change of the resolution and in the event that the pirate vessels were caught in Somalia’s territorial waters who has the authority to penalize or in this case deliver justice to the crime committed?
The year is 2023, Somalia is no longer a transitional state, and piracy has not been part of the political conversations since its decline. Part of the country is moving towards decentralization and democratization while the other is actively fighting terrorism. Somalia has officially become part of the East African Community; the country has secured 4.5 million USD debt relief. Things are looking for a lot better, yet Piracy has somehow raised its head why now? Is this an isolated incident are the drivers for their reappearance different from the wave in the late early 2000s and is piracy really a global threat or one that needs national attention? What needs to be done?
What is clear is Somalia’s political space needs to prioritize maritime security, the current blissful period the country is facing can be used as an opportunity to shift the country’s agenda to address the lack of strong capable institutions to ensure maritime security is sustained. How long will Somalia’s waters remain open to a foreign threat and what needs to be done to protect the sovereignty of the nation? Conversations on the exploration and exploitation, blue economy and sustaining marine life are all begin with maritime security and sadly end with the lack of maritime security. A nation with the longest coastline in the region has the opportunity to shift and achieve a lot from addressing and tackling maritime security with intention.
Abdulahi M. Abdulahi, LL.B., LL.M.
Maritime Lawyer
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