Tag: anti piracy measures

Britain will spend $870,000 Britain said this week it will spend $870,000 to fund an anti-piracy intelligence center in the Seychelles to help with international policing efforts.British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the measure Tuesday in London, saying it will be used to target "pirate kingpins" operating out of Somalia and the Horn of Africa."The establishment of a new intelligence coordination center will allow the international community to target the kingpins of piracy and ensure piracy does not pay," Hague said.The new Regional Anti-Piracy Prosecutions Intelligence Coordination Center will be used to collect and disseminate intelligence about pirate activity to tactical officers in the Gulf of Aden, then assemble obtained evidence and make it usable in court prosecutions.That way, pirate gang leaders based on land can better be brought to justice, Hague said."For too long, the international community has focused its efforts on the young desperate men who are sent out to sea, without seeking to hold to account those who finance and enable huge pirate operations," he said.The new intelligence center, however, "will ensure that is no longer the case."Also joining to fund its start-up are Interpol as well as the Seychelles and Dutch governments.Hague, speaking before the Thursday ...

Human Cost of Piracy off Somalia Coast Incalculable Fuelled by more than $150 million in ransom payments last year, Somali-based pirates were extending their deadly reach farther out into the Indian Ocean, senior United Nations officials said today, as they urged the Security Council to consider a full range of legal, judicial and preventive measures to thwart their brazen attacks.Presenting the Secretary-General's report on specialized anti-piracy courts in Somalia and other States in the region, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel Patrician O'Brien said the human cost of piracy off the Somali coast was "incalculable", with killings and widespread hostage-taking. Although the numbers of incidents had declined in 2011, there were nevertheless 265hostages being held at the end of the year. Increasing levels of violence and the expanding geographical scope of the attacks were all extremely worrying.She said that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had conducted detailed consultations with the relevant police, prosecution, judicial and prison authorities in the concerned regional States. Indeed, a great deal was already being done to ensure the prosecution of piracy suspects. A total of 20States worldwide were prosecuting, or had prosecuted, a ...

$1-billion Seychelles' economy losing about four percent of GDP to piracy With its $1-billion economy losing about four percent of GDP to piracy, Seychelles has sought India's help in putting an end to this threat to trade in the Indian Ocean, particularly in prosecuting the sea brigands.Seychelles Foreign Minister Jean-Paul Adam, who was in India on a three-day visit last week, told IANS in an interview that he had asked his Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna, to assist in the trial of pirates and help increase convictions."In Seychelles, we have estimated that piracy has cost us four percent of the GDP in terms of growth and this is a terrible cost to our economy...there is a huge opportunity cost," Adam said when asked about the impact of piracy on his country's economy.He said the next step in the anti-piracy operations is prosecuting the sea brigands to end the impunity they enjoy."In Seychelles, currently we have convicted 67 pirates who are serving sentences in our jails and we also have another 18 who are awaiting trial."We look forward to working with India and one of the key issues I discussed with the minister (Krishna) is further support that India can give to ...

New Regional Anti-Piracy Prosecutions Intelligence Co-ordination Centre in Seychelles Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that the UK is to provide the Director and fund the construction of the new Regional Anti-Piracy Prosecutions Intelligence Co-ordination Centre (RAPPICC) based in the Seychelles.The RAPPICC will coordinate and analyse intelligence to inform tactical law enforcement options, including the turning of intelligence into useable evidence for prosecutions both in the region and further afield.Additional action by the International Maritime Organisation and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia will ensure that shipping travelling through the Gulf of Aden has access to the best and most up to date advice on how to help tackle the scourge of piracy off the coast of Somalia.These new measures come two days ahead of the London Conference on Somalia, which is bringing together over 50 countries and international organisations to agree a series of practical measures to support Somalia including further measures to tackle piracy and its root causes.Piracy is a symptom as well as a cause of Somalia's lack of stability and it is essential that we continue to build on the success so far in combating it. We know that the problems of piracy ...

Dryad Maritime to manage an international response to the threat of pirates

Anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia China's fast-modernizing navy is stepping up training for anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia in a sign of its growing long-term commitment to overseas missions.The first two-week course for 84 leading officers began this week at the Naval Command College in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, the website of the military newspaper Liberation Army Daily said Friday. The officers will run drills and discuss military theory and experiences from China's previous anti-piracy missions, it said.China first launched the anti-piracy patrols in December 2008, joining an international flotilla aiming to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden. More than a dozen separate missions have followed, each consisting of two of the navy's most sophisticated missile frigates accompanied by a support ship.The patrols marked a major break with the navy's traditional role of protecting China's coastal region, as well as Beijing's oft-stated opposition to foreign military interventions or overseas bases.Along with boosting the navy's blue water capabilities in operations and resupply, the patrols appear to have whetted Beijing's appetite for even more ambitious missions.In recent years, the navy has dispatched ships as far away as the Caribbean, and last year sent vessels to ...

Anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia China's fast-modernizing navy is stepping up training for anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia in a sign of its growing long-term commitment to overseas missions.The first two-week course for 84 leading officers began this week at the Naval Command College in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, the website of the military newspaper Liberation Army Daily said Friday. The officers will run drills and discuss military theory and experiences from China's previous anti-piracy missions, it said.China first launched the anti-piracy patrols in December 2008, joining an international flotilla aiming to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden. More than a dozen separate missions have followed, each consisting of two of the navy's most sophisticated missile frigates accompanied by a support ship.The patrols marked a major break with the navy's traditional role of protecting China's coastal region, as well as Beijing's oft-stated opposition to foreign military interventions or overseas bases.Along with boosting the navy's blue water capabilities in operations and resupply, the patrols appear to have whetted Beijing's appetite for even more ambitious missions.In recent years, the navy has dispatched ships as far away as the Caribbean, and last year sent vessels to ...

Britain is pushing for a United Nations resolution to help Somalia Britain is pushing for a United Nations resolution that would help pull Somalia back from the grip of pirates and terrorists.UN Security Council experts are discussing a strategy that would see the African Union force in Somalia extended from 12,000 to about 17,700 troops.A spokesman for the UK mission to the UN said it wanted to "take advantage of what we see as a window of opportunity" to render al-Shabab militants "ineffective as a military force".A draft resolution is expected to be circulated today, with a view to the resolution being adopted on Wednesday, a day before Britain stages a major conference aimed at breaking up the "business model" used by pirates in Somalia.Senior representatives from more than 40 governments and international organisations will attend the London Somali Conference, starting on February 23 and hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which aims to develop a new approach to tackle the threat of piracy.Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the UK's ambassador to the UN, has said the purpose of the conference is to take advantage of the opportunity created by the military pressure on al-Shabab by a combination of the ...

Dryad Maritime Opens New Anti-piracy Centre in Portsmouth A new state of the art global anti-piracy centre has been unveiled in Portsmouth, helping Shipowners and Charterers to save hundreds of thousands of pounds on Maritime Security. The centre opens one week before senior representatives from around the world arrive in the UK to discuss breaking the piracy business model in Somalia."We expect the threat from piracy to continue and we are investing heavily in infrastructure and technology to give our clients an outsourced operations centre that rivals any naval force. Utilising analysis led Maritime Intelligence can save on average 3-4 days for a vessel in transit with related savings to Charterers and Shipowners on Bunkers, hire and the employment of physical security teams amounting to around $90,000 - $220,000 per transit." ,says Karen Jacques, Chief Operating Officer, Dryad MaritimeHome to some impressive, state of the art technology, the centre is pivotal in monitoring and analysing the movements, assaults and trends of pirate action groups around the world. To seafarers, the centre is a lifeline. It tells them where the pirates are, where they are headed and what they look like. When too close for comfort, the centre warns ships and ...

Confusion re South Africa's anti-piracy operation in the Mozambique Channel. There appears to be some confusion regarding the continuation of South Africa's anti-piracy operation in the Mozambique Channel. The South African Navy, with the aid and support of Mozambique, has maintained a forward station at the port of Pemba since early 2011, under Operation Copper.The naval presence generally consists of a frigate supported by a C-47TP Dakota reconnaissance aircraft of the South African Air Force. A South African Navy submarine has also been on patrol in the region. Navy frigate SAS Isandlwana replaced SAS Mendi on station in December.In a letter to Parliament sent in July last year, President Jacob Zuma said that authorisation for the anti-piracy mission expires on March 31 this year. Several bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOU) with Mozambique were signed during Zuma's visit to Mozambique in December.However, on Monday senior Navy personnel stated that SAS Isandlwana is due to return to South African waters shortly as the MoU between South Africa and Mozambique covering South Africa's assistance in anti-piracy patrols was not yet in place and consequently the Navy will cease to operate in the Mozambican Channel until such time as the MoU had ...