The Country Of Pirates

Who doesn’t like the pirate era, or the movies portraying it? Remember Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean, with sword fighting and cannons? And the monkey.

But what if, pirates still existed. And rather than having rusty swords, they carried RPG and RK47.

Somalia

Welcome to the Horn of Africa, and a large coastline of Somalia. With that vast beach shore, you'd expect they would have many fishers about. Well, they do, but they dont catch fishes. They catch ships. Somalia is a country where pirates fully operate and hijack ships and personnel to extort money.

But doesn’t Somalia act on its people?

Somalia does nothing in this regard to stop the pirate act because it is barely in a functioning state. After 1991 and 4.5 system, Somalia has converted to nothing more than a failed state. Read more about 4.5, here.

Back to Pirates, Ahoy!

How Somalian Pirates Function

The pirates work in an organized manner. They first find an investor, a businessman to fund their operation. Further two groups of 12 members each are made to carry out the hijacking operation. Group A searched for vessels to hijack and sneaks in the ship in the cover of the dark night. On successful operation, the hijacked ship is brought to Somalian cost where group B is tasked to protect it until the negotiations in the stock market are complete.

According to a recent BBC report, Somali pirates seized a record 1,181 hostages in 2010 and were paid millions of dollars in ransom.

However, Somalian pirates didn’t start off this way.

Most of the pirates are ex-fisherman while some being ex-military professionals. After 1991 and the fall of government they had nothing to feed themselves. Fishermen were not able to catch fishes because of thwarts. Sometimes, fisherman were even murdered for fetching too far in the thwart region. This led to the rise of pirate hunting, so much so, the whole region is infamous today for pirates.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) considers the Somali coast to be the most dangerous stretch of water in the world. They are able to extort million per vessel.

Interesting ah, a country of pirates, Somalia!