When mentioning Somalia, many people immediately think of the rampant Somali pirates. These pirates armed with automatic weapons and even RPG rocket launchers terrified the passing merchant ships. Unfortunately, they had to spend money to buy safety after they collided. This also makes people curious, how did the Somali pirates come about? Where did you go now?
A few days ago, the 42nd escort formation of the Chinese Navy held an escort task handover ceremony in the southwestern waters of the Gulf of Aden, replacing the previous 41st escort formation and starting the escort mission.
Unknowingly, the Chinese Navy has been escorting the Gulf of Aden near Somalia for more than 14 years.
When mentioning Somalia, many people immediately think of the rampant Somali pirates. Since 1991, the waters off Somalia have been recognized as the most rampant and infested area of piracy in the world, and it is also one of the most dangerous seas recognized internationally. These pirates armed with automatic weapons and even RPG rocket launchers terrified the passing merchant ships. Unfortunately, they had to spend money to buy safety after they collided.
This also makes people curious, how did the Somali pirates come about? With the emergence of escort fleets stationed in the Gulf of Aden, where did these Somali pirates go? Somalia
has a super-long coastline, and the nearby waters have been the necessary sea passage for Europe to go to the Arab world since ancient times. More than 20,000 freighters pass by here every year, accounting for 14% of the world's total number of ships. Such an important geographical location is naturally inseparable from the coveting of Western countries. Historically, the land of Somalia was successively colonized by the British, French and Italians, and gradually formed three regions: British Somalia, French Somaliland (later Djibouti) and Italian Somalia. In 1960, British Somalia and Italian Somalia took advantage of the fervent African national liberation upsurge to declare independence, but French Somaliland did not join, which was the main reason for the subsequent chaos in Somalia.
Due to the long-term cultural invasion of Western countries, English, French and Italian are mixed in Somalia, and there is almost no communication with each other. As a result, Somalis have no sense of national identity at all, and they still live in the form of their earlier tribes. More importantly, these tribes have their own armed forces, and gradually formed a warlord force on one side of the separatist regime, making Somalia even more chaotic.
In the 1970s, a military strongman, Mohammad Siad Barre, emerged from among the Somali warlords and became president through a military coup. It is very difficult to establish a new national concept, especially for a small country in the whirlpool of great power struggles. Therefore, nationalism in Somalia is not going smoothly, and internal disputes continue.
In 1991, the Somalis overthrew the government led by Barre, and the country immediately fell into a state of disunity. Therefore, it has become a chaotic place where various warlords compete and fight.
The war will inevitably bring about skyrocketing prices and poverty. Somalis who want to survive think of becoming pirates. In this way, a group of daring Somalis took up their weapons and rushed towards the vast sea.
One ticket for tens of millions of dollars. The
early Somali pirates had no equipment. They spotted a passing freighter and approached it quietly by pretending to be a fishing boat in distress.
Relying on this camouflage tactic, from 2007 to 2009, Somali pirates hijacked more than 400 large and small merchant ships, and replaced their weapons with sophisticated AK47 and RPG rocket launchers.
In 2008, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi oil tanker, the Sirius, carrying 2 million barrels of oil.
The pirates soon discovered that the oil tanker was of great value, and the crude oil loaded was worth more than 200 million U.S. dollars, so they demanded a ransom of 10 million U.S. dollars from the Saudi company.
After more than 50 days of negotiations, Saudi Arabia and the pirates bargained and finally reduced the ransom to 3 million US dollars.
After the money arrived, the Somali pirates allowed the seized tanker to leave the seized location.
The hijacking shocked the whole world and made Somali pirates "famous". In 2009, Somali pirates also appeared in the US "Time Magazine", and were regarded as a terrorist organization that seriously endangered the world.
It is worth mentioning that Somali pirates are no longer ordinary fishermen, but a group of professional armed pirates. According to information released by Time Magazine, the Somali pirates active near the Gulf of Aden are divided into four professional pirate groups: Puntland Guards, Merka, Somali Sailors, and National Coast Volunteer Guards. In addition to an AK47, they are also equipped with other large-caliber machine guns, RPG rocket launchers and advanced GPS equipment, and some pirates also have anti-tank missiles in their hands.
The "successful cases" of hijacking again and again have given Somali pirates nothing to fear. Since 2006, Somali pirates have attacked supply ships or frigates of the United States, Germany, France and other countries as targets.
There is still a long way to go to save Somalia The unscrupulous robbery by
Somali pirates has been unanimously condemned by the international community. In April 2011, the United Nations passed Resolution 1851, authorizing countries to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia.
Under the high-pressure attack of the navies of various countries, the rampant behavior of Somali pirates has been greatly curbed. Many pirates have also "washed their hands in the golden basin" and changed their careers to start legitimate careers.
But today, Somalia is still chaotic and impoverished. Suicide attacks and bombings are often staged, and more than 10 million people in the country are in a state of not even having enough to eat.
Some pirates are hard to get rid of their bad habits, and they may break up into pieces and continue to engage in maritime plundering, or engage in various illegal activities such as drug trafficking and human trafficking at the same time. This is also an important reason why the navies of various countries continue to escort in the Gulf of Aden so far.
Escort fleets can protect the safety of ships passing through the Gulf of Aden, but they cannot allow Somalia to maintain a stable social progress. Only when the Somali people end the chaotic situation as soon as possible and truly find a way to make the country rich and the people strong, the "cancer" of Somali pirates may be truly eliminated in this region.
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