Somalia/Kenya/Ukraine

Somali Islamists tell pirates to scuttle arms ship

Article published on the 2008-10-02 Latest update 2008-10-02 17:09 TU

Pirates continue to hold the MV Faina
(Photo : AFP)

Islamic militants in Somalia urged the pirates holding the Ukranian arms ship Faina to blow it up if their demands for a 20 million (14.5 million euro) ransom is not paid.

Contacted by RFI, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a spokesperson for the Shebab movement, said that the pirates should set the ship on fire or sink it.

He claims the tanks and other military equipement onbord the Faina belonged to the Ethopian forces who are propping up the Somalian government. The weapons were supposed to be unloaded in Mogadishu to battle his forces, Robow claimed.

Robow said that his group has no links to the pirates onbord the ship and doesn’t condone piracy, but that these arms are part of a war against Allah, and should be destroyed.

This claim is refuted in a report on piracy issued Thursday by the British think tank Chatham House. Funds collected in ransom are directed to the Shebab movement, the report's author, Roger Middleton, writes.

The Shebab movement briefly controlled parts of southern Somalia last year, and during that time nearly eliminated all piracy.

Meanwhile, the Faina continues to sit in Somalian waters, surrounded by international warships acting as an impromptu international policing force, in lieu of a more permanent solution to combatting the piracy that has taken root in Somalia.

On Thursday, France said that it would participate in an EU and Nato-run international coast guard proposed for the Somalian waters.

There are more than 1000 pirates operating out of Somalia, the Chatham House report claims.

According to the report, more than 60 ships have been hijacked in 2008, and between 18 and 30 million dollars (13 and 21.6 million euros) have been paid in ransom.

“The civil war and the ongoing conflict in Somalia is the primary reason pirates are able to operate [there],” the reports author, Roger Middleton, told RFI.

“In a country which is so destroyed by war, and where there are so few opportunities for jobs and farming, it becomes very attractive when you can make 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars from a week or two weeks work capturing a ship,” Middleton says.