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What do you call a pirate on dry land? A criminal. It’s obvious, of course, but there still seems to be some disconnect in certain sections of the Press when it comes to nomenclature.
Criminals who work on land but who are also pirates when conditions are right are not a new phenomena. If anything, it’s merely proof of how adaptable Somali criminal gangs really are.
The piracy model itself relies on the taking of hostages just as much as the capture of the vessel the hostages were on board. The emotional pressure placed upon shipping companies and insurers when pirate negotiators use crew as leverage is obvious, as is the pressure from relatives at home and the resultant media coverage. Few people care if Shipping Company A has a VLCC worth millions of dollars with a similarly large cargo value sitting off Somalia in pirate hands, but throw 20 or so human beings from their country into the mix and it becomes a very different story.
Since 2012, the pirate model has been broken; pirates succeeded when the risk/reward ratio was in their favour. The increased naval presence in the region combined with the use of private maritime security companies (PMSC) by shipping companies and a greater adherence to Best Management Practice has seen the scales tip against the pirates. The figures speak for themselves, with no merchant ships hijacked in 2013.
With so much pressure at sea, it’s not surprising that those same criminals have moved into land-based operations such as kidnapping. And it’s nothing new either, nor is the targeting of foreign nationals.
When things became a little too hot on the waves, the most famous pirate of recent years, Mohamed Abdi Hassan, better known to pirate watchers as Afweyne (Somali for ‘loud mouth’ or ‘cry baby’), turned his hand to khat distribution and, according the United Nations Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG), land-based kidnap for ransom (KFR). The Hobyo-Harardheere Pirate Network (HHPN) became less active at sea compared to other gangs in 2012. However, Afweyne, along with other senior figures such as his son, Abdiqadir, Ahmed Saneeg and Mohamed Garfanje (also Gafaanje) kept their hand in and some moved into KFR as another way of making money. At the same time, they began to use hostages as political pawns by demanding not only ransoms but the release of fellow pirates held in foreign jails.
Two Seychellois fishermen, Rolly Tambara and Marc Songoire, taken hostage when their vessel, the FV Aride was hijacked on October 30th 2011 found themselves being used as bargaining chips when Garfanje’s gang demanded a ransom as well as the release pirates held in the Seychelles. It was believed that one of the jailed men was a nephew of Garfanje.
Happily, Tambara and Songoire were finally freed in April 2012 after a year in captivity following the alleged payment of a ransom. Garfanje’s pirate gang at the time was made up of members of the Sacad and Saleban clans, both part of the Hawiye clan.
In September 2011, Judith and David Tebbutt were attacked at the Kiwayu Beach Resort in Kenya’s Lamu area. Tragically, David Tebbutt was killed during the incident, but his widow was kidnapped and taken back to Somalia. At the time, al Shabaab was blamed by the Kenyan authorities, although the attack had all the hallmarks of Somali pirates. And it’s here that the disconnect comes into play. They may have been pirates too, but they were criminals first and foremost. Tebbutt documented her ordeal in a book, and was finally freed after relatives paid her ransom of $1.1 million in March 2012.
At around the same time as Tebbutt’s kidnapping, an armed gang took 66-year-old French national, Marie Dedieu, from her home in Manda Bay, Lamu, Kenya. The gang was described as “Somali gunmen” and they returned to Somalia with Dedieu after kidnapping her on October 1st. Tragically, despite attempts at negotiations to free her, Marie Dedieu, who suffered from heart problems and cancer, died in captivity. There were reports from the French Foreign Ministry that the pirates holding her may have refused to provide her with the medicines they had sent.
Naturally, in the face of such incursions, Kenya stepped up its security and we haven’t seen a repeat of these incidents.
In October 2011, two aid workers with the Danish Demining Group (DDG), Jessica Buchanan (a Christian and American) and Poul Thisted, a Danish citizen, were kidnapped along with a Somali colleague in Northern Somalia. The group was traveling to Galkayo airport to fly to Kenya when at least 10 armed men in two Toyota Hilux trucks kidnapped them. The kidnappers were part of the security team supposedly guarding the group. The hostages were handed over to a pirate group in Bajeela district, around 120km south of Galkayo. The pirates then moved them to a location close to Harardheere in Mudug.
As is well documented, Buchanan and Thisted were freed following an operation conducted by US Navy SEALs on January 25th, 2012. During the rescue, nine pirates were engaged and killed by the SEALs.
Great news for Buchanan and Thisted. Not so great news for a journalist named Michael Scott Moore, a dual US/German citizen, who would also become a victim on his way to Galkayo airport, suggesting that this road is one of the most hazardous for Westerners hoping to leave Somalia.
On January 6th 2012, Moore was on his way to the airport to catch a flight to Nairobi when he was kidnapped by 15 men in SUVs. Again, the kidnappers were security guards who had conspired with pirates to snatch Moore. Unfortunately for him, the SEALs simply didn’t have time to search for him during their operation to rescue Buchanan and Thisted. Not surprisingly, the pirates holding him, members of the Saad clan, ramped up security considerably following the American attack, although this was in part due to a threat from pirates in the Saleeban clan who wanted to kill Moore in revenge for the deaths of their comrades. The gang had refused to negotiate Moore’s freedom with Galmudug officials, and their leader, Ali Duulaaye, drafted in Garfanje to conduct ransom negotiations.
The media has virtually ignored Moore’s plight, although there was some limited coverage on the first and second anniversaries of his abduction. Proof of life was given by his captors in September 2013, when he was pictured surrounded by heavily armed men, wearing a Manchester United soccer shirt, looking gaunt and, as you’d expect, haunted. This was the first time he had been seen publicly since a video was sent to SomaliaReport.com in May 2012, which showed Moore to be in good health, guarded by around 36 pirates.
Andrew Mwangura, Secretary-General of the Seafarer’s Union of Kenya, a former colleague of mine from SomaliaReport.com, tells me that Moore is now “in a very bad situation” following a gun attack in December last year. According to Mwangura, Moore was shot while trying to escape his captors, although it is not known how badly he was wounded. Moore is allegedly in hospital in Galkayo under tight guard by his captors while he receives treatment. If true, this is a horrendous new development and one the wider media really needs to investigate.
On October 13th, 2011, two Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff, Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut, were abducted from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya by al Shabaab terrorists. The women were subsequently sold to pirates from HHPN and initially held aboard the then still floating MV Albedo before fear of military attack forced their captors to move them around. In 2012, Afweyne and his son were both rumoured to be involved in ransom negotiations to release the women in Mogadishu.
Ultimately, the MFS workers would have to wait until July 2013 for their freedom, having spent 644 days in captivity.
On Wednesday 10th July, 2012, two Kenyan aid workers and a Somali doctor were kidnapped by pirates in Puntland. The three were working for Swedish NGO, International Aid Services (IAS) at the time of their abduction and IAS confirmed that a pirate gang was involved in the kidnapping. According to media reports, the kidnap occurred near the village of Baadweyn, around 50km North of Galkayo, on the Puntland border. During the attack the driver, two police escorts and the IAS representative in Puntland were wounded by gunfire. The attack saw around 14 men in three vehicles attack the aid workers’ convoy. The captives were quickly moved to a village in the Hobyo area, a favourite pirate haunt.
The most recent additions to the pirate kidnap list are two Kenyan engineers, abducted from the Hodan district of Mogadishu on January 12th. This week, Andrew Mwangura announced that the pirates holding the two had demanded a ransom of $1 million for their freedom. It’s believed that Garfanje and his gang are behind the abduction.
It’s thought that in total, pirates are holding six Kenyans hostage in Somalia as well as an estimated 46-50 crew from various dhows, the MV Albedo and local fishing boats hijacked at sea. That number, of course, depends on whether you take the figure from the European Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) or the UK Maritime Trade Operation (UKMTO); neither organization quotes the same number of hostages. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) no longer supplies hostage figures for Somalia.
Piracy hasn’t gone away. Its practitioners have merely reverted to their land-based criminal roots until the opportunities at sea improve. From human trafficking, drug smuggling, gun-running and KFR to piracy at sea, Somali criminals are nothing if not adaptable.
David Rider
Intelligence & Communications Officer
