Somalia, located in the easternmost part of the African continent on the Somali Peninsula, north of the Gulf of Aden, east of the Indian Ocean, has the longest coastline on the African continent, because of its very advantageous geographical location, known as the "Horn of Africa". However, Somalia, which occupies a geographical advantage, is one of the poorest countries in the world, and at the same time, it has become a "cancer" in the world, and piracy is very rampant.
Especially with the rendering of film and television works such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "One Piece", the "Somali pirates" have been covered with a mysterious veil. So why did Somalia become a "pirate's paradise", and why did the Somali pirates who once frightened merchant ships in various countries gradually disappear after 2016? Regarding Somalia, apart from pirates, what other strange and strange cold knowledge is there that no one knows?
Rampant "Somali pirates"
Somali pirates refer to a group of criminals who specialize in robbing ships of other countries in the somali waters and around the Gulf of Aden, who take advantage of the narrow shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden in somali waters to rob passing ships of various countries in order to obtain benefits and high ransoms.
In July 1960, Somalia was freed from British colonization and established a republic. However, after the independence of Somalia, the economy was not restored and developed as soon as possible, but the civil war and warlord forces have been in a scuffle, and the people have suffered from war and famine.
International relief agencies such as the United Nations have repeatedly delivered food supplies to Somalia in a humanitarian spirit, but they are largely looted by chaotic warlord groups before they can be delivered. In order to survive, many people can only migrate to the coastal area in large numbers, thinking of catching some seafood in the sea to fill their stomachs. However, many countries in Europe and the United States have taken advantage of the somali war and have no time to take care of the territorial waters, and often use large fishing vessels to carry out large-scale fishing operations in their waters.
In the long run, the fishery resources off the coast of Somalia have basically been close to exhaustion, and the refugees who are hungry and cold are forced to have no way out, so the "Somali pirates" came into being. Moreover, piracy has also received strong support from many people in the local area, which makes piracy more and more rampant. So how fierce are Somali pirates? What big deals have they made?
When it comes to the "robbery of fame" of Somali pirates, it is the Sirius incident. Saudi Arabia's Sirius, known as the world's super cruise ship, is currently one of the newest and largest cruise ships in the world, with a length of 330 meters and a displacement of 310,000 tons, equivalent to the size of three aircraft carriers. On November 15, 2008, Somali pirates defeated the convoy, hijacking a Sirius cruise ship and 25 crew members worth more than $100 million, including 2 million barrels of crude oil shipped.
After the Successful Hijacking, somali pirates began negotiations with Saudi Arabia to pay the ransom, or else they would tear up the tickets and smash the ship. In the end, it took only a week for Saudi Arabia to airdrop $3 million in helicopters to redeem the crew and cruise ship.
Two months before the hijacking of sirius, Somali pirates managed to rob a Ukrainian ammunition ship and secure a ransom of $3.2 million. It can be seen how frequent and rampant these Somali pirates are, so that they will launch indiscriminate attacks and robberies regardless of which country these ships belong to.
For example, in November 2008, Somali pirates hijacked the Tianjin fishing vessel Tianyu 8 on the mainland and forcibly demanded a ransom of $1.7 million. In June 2010, they hijacked the "Golden Blessing" merchant ship of Shanghai Dingheng Commercial Company in mainland China, demanding a ransom of $2.7 million.
According to incomplete statistics, from 2000 to 2015, Somali pirates organized more than 3,000 robberies, of which 237 were successful, and ransoms were obtained about 440 million US dollars, and the average profit per ship was 1.85 million US dollars. So many people will wonder, since these pirates can get such a high ransom once, then these pirates must be rich?
In fact, the system of sharing the spoils of Somali pirates is not as simple as people think. Generally, pirates who rush to the front line can get a commission of 1-2 points of the total ransom, and if they are the first pirates to board the ship, there may be a reward of about 10,000 US dollars. The remaining ransom was handed over to the local armed leaders and returned to the investors.
That is to say, Somali pirates are a pirate behavior with a complete system and specialized personnel behind them, who not only have equipment and armed forces, but also professional lawyers, financial teams, etc. responsible for negotiations. Before each sea robbery, they will let the people take shares according to the situation, and the forms of shares are very diverse, you can personally participate, you can also provide weapons and equipment or cars, speedboats and other means of transportation, of course, you can also provide a practical skill and talent that is conducive to piracy...
It's like a public company, the ransom is equivalent to the company's performance, the more shares you put in, the higher the natural rate of return. This is the "securities trading of Somali pirates", is it not very magical. This bizarre idea came from the "pirate king", Abadi Evya.
It is by virtue of this incredible "securities trading" behavior that Somali pirates have become a "pirate tumor" that has made the world feel frightened. But since 2016, the somali pirates that have been rampant have gradually declined, what is the reason for this?
Why are Somali pirates gradually disappearing?
The period 2000-2015 was arguably the peak of somali piracy, with ships in Somalia and near the Gulf of Aden poisoned by pirates. In the face of the arrogant Somali pirates day and night, the countries no longer tolerated it, gradually made their positions and weapons clear, and united with many countries to form a powerful mobile patrol escort in the Indian Ocean.
Of course, according to the custom, the patrol escorts of various countries do not take the initiative to open fire on the trailing pirates, generally based on expulsion and warning. This is mainly because before the pirates did not board the ship to carry out robbery, they are basically like ordinary fishing boats, if they easily open fire, in case the pirates throw their guns into the sea, they will not admit to being pirates, but will cause international disputes.
As a result, there will be differences in the behaviour of States towards piracy. For example, when the Continental Cruiser fleet encounters pirates, it generally does not take the initiative to fire, will first fire signal flares for expulsion, if the expulsion is useless, they still have to follow the mission, and will use helicopter gunships and other equipment for aerial warning.
The approach adopted by the United States is to set up a certain range of cordons, and if the trailing ships still enter the alert range after warning, then regardless of three, seven, twenty-one, all of them will be forcibly arrested. Of course, compared with other countries, the most hardcore country to deal with pirates is Russia, their patrol guard as long as they see a suspicious ship trailing, they will decisively fire, and in order to prevent pirates from counterattacking, they will shell until they confirm that there is no danger. In a word, "I'd rather kill by mistake than let go of any possibility of threat."
It was precisely because countries showed their weapons and attitudes to Somali pirates that Somali pirates gradually disappeared and withdrew from the stage of history.
In addition to pirates in Somalia, what other strange cold knowledge does it have?
Of course, in addition to pirates, Somalia has a lot of unknown cold knowledge in this country, and then we will learn about another Somalia besides pirates.
Somalia is one of the countries with the most beautiful women and supermodels in Africa
Perhaps the dark-skinned Africans do not conform to our Oriental aesthetics, but Somalia, a magical country, is the country that produces the most black beauties, they have a slender and tall figure, beautiful facial features, and are known as "black pearls" by the world. According to a sample survey, the appearance of somali flight attendants is also the most beautiful in All of Africa, and each is a beautiful woman in a thousand miles.
At the same time, because of the coexistence of appearance and figure, Somalia has also given birth to many world-class supermodels, such as Iman, who has the reputation of "black pearl". Bowie, the first supermodel of color, worked at Markle. Jackson's MV as the beautiful princess was a sensation.
Somalia has the most camels in the world
In Somalia, there is still such a saying: "There are camels at home, eat and wear do not worry", so the local animal husbandry in Somalia is mainly based on camels, and the number of camels is more than 6 million every year, which is almost equivalent to one-third of the total number of camels in the world. At the same time, the camel is a symbol of honor in the eyes of somalis, the status is very high, and the people are even more taboo: they cannot verbally scold the camel, cannot take pictures of the camel, and so on.
Even camels can be used as a more powerful means of payment than money, for example, when various civil disputes cause serious injuries or deaths of others, disputes can be resolved directly by compensating and compensating for camels. For example, when a man and a woman get married, they can easily marry a daughter-in-law home instead of a bride price with a camel. In short, in Somalia, many things can be easily solved with camels.
Female circumcision is still preserved in some parts of Somalia
The so-called circumcision refers to the abbreviation of female genital mutilation, which is divided into three types: only cutting, both cutting and cutting, and complete suture and cutting. It can be said that this circumcision is a bad habit of destroying women's bodies, but to this day, in the Somali desert, this cruel circumcision ceremony is still popular.
Even in some parts of the local area, whether women are circumcised is very important, if girls have not been circumcised, not only can not marry, but also by the surrounding people discriminated against and spurned. It is understood that in 2014, more than 95% of girls in Somalia still need to be circumcised, and although the local government issued a ban on such female circumcision in 2012, it seems that the law does not work in the face of entrenched traditional practices.
Of course, in addition to the above, Somalia is also the site of the world's highest temperature, which is measured to reach 63 ° C. In addition, although piracy is prevalent in Somalia, the local people hate thieves very much, and thieves who are caught will not only be beaten by the group, but also spurned.
And what is even more bizarre is that Somalia is in constant chaos, but it has always been a typical example of more and more chaotic and poorer births, with the population growth rate rising year by year, but the average life expectancy in the country is only about 55 years, and the maternal and infant mortality rate ranks third in the world. Do readers have any other thoughts about Somalia?