The proliferation of pirate attacks is increasingly posing a major threat to the African continent’s critical trade routes with other nations.

The UN Security Council (no doubt at wits end as to the solution to this burgeoning crisis) has now provided nations new powers to pursue pirates into the waters off Somalia, an effort to combat a new spate of hijackings off the Horn of Africa.

The unanimous resolution calls on UN members to use "all necessary means to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery," and authorises warships to chase pirates into Somali territorial waters if necessary.

Yet the resolution will have to be backed up by concrete action, to prevent further attacks, which are increasingly more violent and well organised and are proliferating at a rapid rate.

The Gulf of Aden in particular has become a treacherous stretch for shipping in recent months. According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), there have been more than two dozen pirate attacks reported since the beginning of 2008.

The United States is calling for concerted multinational action to halt the rampant piracy in East Africa's waters. The move comes in response to a recent series of hijackings and attacks on vessels, including a Japanese oil tanker. The price of oil spiked to a record level on international markets after the tanker was hit by rocket fire off the coast of Somalia on 21 April 2008.

In its latest report, the IMB noted that a total of 36 vessels were boarded and one vessel hijacked in the first 3 months of 2008 alone. Seven crew members were taken hostage, six kidnapped, three killed and one missing – presumed dead. In the majority of incidents, the attackers were heavily armed with guns or knives. The use and threat of violence against crew members remains unacceptably high (3).

The prospects of attacks subsiding were dealt another blow after yet another suspected pirate attack in mid-May 2008. Jordanian authorities lost contact with a Jordanian-flagged ship off Somalia on 17 May 2008 and suspect it was attacked by pirates, a Jordanian official said. "It is believed that the ship was subjected to piracy," Jordan's state news agency Petra quoted Minister of Transportation Alaa Batayneh as saying. He said the ship "Victoria", owned by a United Arab Emirates company, was carrying 4,200 tonnes of sugar from Denmark in humanitarian assistance to the Somali capital Mogadishu.

A French-led squadron, which includes US and German ships, is currently patrolling the Somali coast. Still, three European freighters were hijacked at the end of May 2008 in the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea off the Horn of Africa - all critical routes for trade.

Of grave concern is the proliferation of piracy to other parts of Africa’s increasingly treacherous coastlines.

Nigeria now too has become the world piracy "hot spot", with its prized oil industry a particular target, and the raiders have exposed flaws in the country's security. Despite the massive revenues earned from oil, officials concede Nigeria is ill-equipped to combat pirates who ply the seas with speed boats, modern machine guns and radios and target tankers, trawlers, barges and oil-industry back-up vessels. The IMB have stated that Nigeria accounted for 10 of the 49 attacks registered worldwide in the first quarter of 2008, more than 20%. It called Nigeria "the number one hot spot" for piracy. It has taken over from Indonesia for the first time in 16 years of reporting.

The most pirate-infested zones are around the economic capital, Lagos, and the oil-rich waters of the southern Niger Delta. Each new attack sends oil prices up and in April, President Umaru Yar'Adua called for an international force to be quickly set up to protect Gulf of Guinea oil installations.

South Africa too is facing an onslaught due to its insufficient border security measures, in particular around its increasingly vulnerable coastline. This concern is now directed towards the country’s lax maritime security. In Cape Town, SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) CEO Tsietsi Mokhele told Parliament's transport portfolio committee of a lack of technological capacity to monitor foreign vessels in South African waters. "Our capacity to track and monitor vessels at sea is non-existent," Mokhele said during his testimony to the portfolio committee. The South African Air Force patrolled the eastern and western coasts in turn daily, but officers admitted that they could easily miss a ship on the ocean. The situation makes the waters around SA ideal for ships embarking on clandestine activities - and indeed pirates too. Mokhele said South Africa was lagging when it came to installing a Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) system, which it was required to do, in terms of international agreement, by 1 January 2009. LRIT is a satellite-based security system used for tracking the movement of large ships around the globe. In terms of the agreement, South Africa is obliged to implement the system to monitor shipping passing within 1,500 km of its coastline. South Africa therefore should also take heed of the warnings repeatedly being issued as the country is by no means isolated from becoming a prime target of pirates and becoming a hotspot for piracy.

The African continent is therefore no longer an island unto itself, and is considered a virtual treasure trove for modern-day rocket-grenade-wielding pirates seeking to secure lucrative gains from their ill-acquired loot.

Notes:

(1) This briefing also appeared in the Cape Times, 29 July 2008 edition entitled ‘South Africa vulnerable as modern-day piracy spreads around Africa’.

(2) Gerrie Swart is Head Researcher: Conflict & Terrorism Unit. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences, University of South Africa, and a Research Associate with the Centre for International Political Studies, University of Pretoria (gerrie.swart@consultancyafrica.com).