the Prime Minister’s Easter 2024 message
 
March message from Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Bilal El-Hayek
 
A solemn funeral to the late Nazih Nicolas in Sydney
 
One Year of Repair, Reform and Action, and much more to do.
 
Kuwait deplores Israeli occupation's seizure of Palestinian land
 
Patriarch Duwaihi's beatification ceremony to be held in Lebanon
 
One Year of Repair, Reform and Action, and much more to do across Canterbury
 
Have your say on a planning proposal in Carlingford
 
Protecting religious institutions
 
AFIC President, stated that AFIC strongly condemns any act of violence and terrorism and stands in solidarity with the Russian people
 
The community’s hopes and expectations of a Muslim public figure
 
Mr Keating has been a public critic of the AUKUS security pact,...”.
 
Abdullah calls for taking fight agaisnt piracy to extremist groups on land





Abdullah calls for taking fight against piracy to extremist groups on land

29 October 2014

UAE Foreign Minister says international naval coalitions have stubbed out piracy at sea and the time has come to “take the fight” to terror groups operating in Somalia.

 

Officers inside the EU Naval Force Flagship ITS Andrea Doria, which is involved in counter-piracy efforts, anchored at Port Rashid in Dubai on Monday. — KT photo by Juidin Bernarrd

Bleak economic prospects and social discontent, fuelled by a wobbly political system, are enabling terrorist groups to spread their influence off the Horn of Africa, in the west of the continent and in the Gulf of Guinea. UAE Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said international naval coalitions have stubbed out piracy at sea and the time has come to “take the fight” to terror groups operating in Somalia.

Somalia struggles to find its feet after decades of civil strife and exported piracy along its coast. Pirate attacks on ships have declined with only two incidents or two reported this year, but troubles on land cannot be wished away.

“In Somalia, root causes of piracy remain in place — a lack of economic opportunities, weak state institutions unable to exert their monopoly on the use of force, and the absence of the rule of law and effective governance,” the foreign minister said in comments ahead of the fourth conference against piracy to be held in Dubai today and tomorrow.

He said the same factors are driving piracy in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. “Even more worryingly, they fuel the growth of land-based terrorist organisations and criminal networks that interlink with and fuel maritime crime,” Shaikh Abdullah said.

From a high of over 200 incidents of ship hijacking in 2011, the numbers are down to single digits this year and credit for this must go to naval forces like the European Union Naval Forces Somalia, Nato’s Operation Desert Shield and the counter-piracy task force under the Combined Maritime Forces, which have coordinated to bring down the symptoms of a larger problem gripping Africa — a lack of opportunity for its youth.

Shaikh Abdullah said the international community needs to sustain the recent momentum at sea. “This requires extending the mandate of international operations in the Horn of Africa, even as attacks decrease. Without these operations, piracy will quickly return to prey on shipping along our vital sea lanes.”

He said security forces in Somalia must be helped to confront the instability on land. “This demands sustained international efforts to build local law-enforcement capacities and provide effective governance and economic opportunities.

“It also requires taking the fight to land-based radical and criminal organisations such as Boko Haram and Al Shabaab that are both drivers of instability, and partners and sponsors of maritime crime. We mean here that some of those piracy actions amount to the level of terrorist acts.”

In the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), which has 80 countries, international organisations, and the maritime industry, the UAE co-chairs the Working Group on ‘Maritime Counter-Piracy and Mitigation Operations’ with Japan and the Seychelles.

Drones join effort

EUNAVFOR officials, said on board the Italian warship Andrea Noria, said seas may have been calm off Somalia but they have stepped up surveillance in the area using drones for any sign of pirate activity.

The Italian Air Force joined the EUNAVFOR efforts in September by deploying its Predator drones to watch out for suspicious movements in the region.

The drones will fly over the waters and give early warnings of a possible attack.

Rear-Admiral Guido Rando, Force Commander, said besides these new additions in the air, the force operates five warships and maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft.

Public-private partnerships

DP World, which is in the forefront of development projects in piracy-hit countries, said the way forward is through public-private partnerships. “We have experience of PPP agreements around the world, particularly where governments are often seeking expertise as much as they are pursuing foreign direct investment,” said DP World Group CEO Mohammed Sharaf.

INEGMA Director of Research and Consultancy Dr Theodore Karasik said there is a need for soft power in violence-prone states like Somalia. “Creating hope in Somali societies will encourage communities to implement change and soft power that develops cooperation strategies between public and private stakeholders as alternatives to a military or coercive approach. Emphasising the role of local cultures and policies is crucial in promoting national security and boosting the economic sector.”


 














Copyright 2007 mideast-times.com