Recently, the International Chamber of Shipping announced a new news, announcing that the Somali waters of the Gulf of Aden will no longer be a high-risk area for piracy. Anyway, the first thing that Xiaobian thought of was how it was possible! If you think about how rampant somali pirates were back then, daring to single-handedly confront old American warships, how can we say that the somali waters are no longer a high-risk area for pirates? But then calmed down and thought about it, it seems that it has indeed been a long time since I heard from the Somali pirates, have the Somali pirates changed their professions? And why were there so many pirates in the Gulf of Aden before? It is said that the convoys of various countries can only drive away and cannot kill when facing Somali pirates. This issue will take you to understand these issues.
Why are there so many pirates in the Gulf of Aden?
First of all, let's talk about why there are so many pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The Gulf of Aden is a very important sea oil transport channel in the world, is the only way to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, known as the "golden waterway", every day there will be many merchant ships passing through here, it is reasonable to say that there is such a natural port, the countries along the Gulf of Aden should be very rich, but Somalia is just the opposite, is one of the least developed countries in the world, why is this?
The national situation in Somalia
In fact, it is still affected by the Gulf of Aden, the so-called "success is also Xiao He, defeat is also Xiao He", the Gulf of Aden has a superior geographical environment, is a good place to develop the economy, but it is also a good place for Western countries to colonize, Somalia will inevitably become a colony of Western countries, from 1840, Western countries began to invade the Gulf of Aden region, in 1941 Britain fully controlled Somalia, and colonized plunder, resulting in Somalia even after independence, there is no own thought and language, The established government will not manage the country, inefficient, the domestic economy has also regressed, and then Somalia has fallen into civil war, domestic factions are numerous, the contradictions between the people and the government continue to escalate, and even directly overthrow the government, resulting in the country in a state of "anarchy", after the country also has drought and other natural disasters, more and more refugees, the government will not distribute materials reasonably, all kinds of robberies occur frequently, in order to be able to fill their stomachs, many refugees are forced to become pirates.
Psychological changes
However, at the beginning, the Somali pirates only relied on small boats to rob some ordinary merchant ships, without any excessive behavior, after paying the ransom, they released people, the hijacked ships looked at it, "more is better than less", obediently paid the ransom and left, on this compromise of the way of handling, fueled the arrogance of the Somali pirates, the hijacked merchant ships are getting bigger and bigger, the ransom demanded is getting higher and higher, the number of pirates is also increasing, there is also money to buy weapons and equipment, heavy weapons, machine guns and cannons are all on the battlefield, The scope of the hijacking has also expanded from the somali coast to the high seas hundreds of kilometers away, the pirates are becoming more and more fierce, and the slightest disobedience will threaten the safety of the crew, and the abductees can only agree to the various requests of the pirates in order to get out of Somalia as soon as possible.
And when the cost of the pirate's input is very small, only need a person, a gun, a ship can be, the goods that can be robbed are huge, it is reported that the pirates can get up to $2 million in ransom for each hijacked ship, and many of the hijacked people are holding the attitude of "breaking the wealth and avoiding disaster", the pirates can get huge income without any risk, so the vicious circle comes down, making the pirates more and more rampant, even warships dare to intercept.
Somali pirates intercept warships
In 2012, a warship of Lao Mei needed to pass through the Gulf of Aden, in fact, Lao Mei knew that there were pirates in this sea, but they were warships, did pirates dare to attack warships? So with a big grin on the way to the Gulf of Aden, what I didn't expect was that the Somali pirates really dared, they only drove an ordinary speedboat, they came to the side of the warship, and quietly boarded the warship, but the Somali pirates were also careless, only a few people came, unsurprisingly subdued by the old American navy, but just when the old Americans were proud, the Somali pirates were completely enraged, and they vowed not only to rescue their companions, but also to destroy the warship and take away all the supplies above. Decisively launched an attack on the warships of the old United States, even took out his few rockets, and the old United States also suffered a loss and ran away with the warship, although both sides suffered losses in this battle, we can still see that somali pirates are really too rampant, so there are friends to ask, pirates are bullied to the head of the navy, why not catch them all?
Why can't somali pirates be killed outright?
In fact, it is not that it can not be exhausted, but do not know where to start, because most of the Somali pirates are composed of local fishermen, when there is no merchant ship is fishermen, when there is a merchant ship will become a pirate, if the foreign army kills, it is deliberately hurt civilians, it is easy to leave a handle for other countries, and at that time there were international regulations, even if the foreign navy caught the pirates, there is no power to punish, can only be handed over to the country to deal with, but the somali country has been in a state of anarchy, As a result, every time the pirates were sent back to Somalia, they were released the next day, useless except for wasting manpower.
There is also a very united Somali pirates, once there is a country to hurt the Somali pirates, they will begin to retaliate madly, after all, barefoot is not afraid to wear shoes, over time, Somali pirates are more and more rampant, the Gulf of Aden sea has become a high-risk area for pirates, according to statistics, the world loses 25 billion US dollars in Somalia every year, as long as a robbery of a merchant ship, it is possible to get rich overnight, completely away from poverty, so there are many children in Somalia who regard Somali pirates as heroes. I dream of growing up quickly and becoming a pirate.
International fight against Somali piracy
Seeing that this situation is out of control, the United Nations began to carry out crackdown operations, in 2008 adopted resolution 1838, calling on more countries to participate in the fight against Somali pirates, but also set up a special tribunal to try captured Somali pirates, countries also sent warships to form a guard in the Gulf of Aden, as an escort mission, and through the joint efforts of all countries, the activities of Somali pirates have been significantly reduced, in recent years, only in 2018 there was an incident of robbery of merchant ships, But the use of force is not the best policy, we have to start from the fundamental problems of the Somali country, after all, their original intention of being pirates was to fill their stomachs, if the life is guaranteed, I believe that the Somali people are not willing to let their country bear the reputation of a pirate, so some people have come up with a way to "rule the thieves by business".
Treat thieves with business
He was a Japanese businessman, Kiyoshi Kimura, and he thought that if the somali people's living ability was guaranteed, they would certainly not be pirates, after all, who wants to live on the tip of a knife? Coupled with the fact that the blows of various countries are so great, it is more difficult to successfully hijack a merchant ship, but if the Somali people have their own industry and can make money on their own, they will not be pirates, so he went to Somalia to talk business with pirates, promised to teach them technology, give them fishing boats, develop tuna business, and the mainland also sent technicians to Somalia, called them fishing techniques, created a lot of jobs for them, and helped them build infrastructure. The Somali economy can be steadily improved.
I believe that in the future, under the dual role of force and economy, more and more Somali pirates will lay down their weapons and live a stable life, the development of Somalia will become better and better, and the waters of the Gulf of Aden will become more and more secure. Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss, we will not see or disperse.