Okay, this story is from the Voice of America, and it seems rather strange: the Minister of Fisheries of the new Somali government is offering to solve the piracy problem if the international commuity will offer logistical support to its Navy.
Ah, the Somali Navy . . . the what?
Wikipedia is not the most reliable source on orders of battle, but this is what it says of the Somali Navy prior to 1991, when it ceased to exist. Six fast attack craft and a landing ship. Even if it were still afloat, the pirates could outgun that.
The CIA World Factbook is more succinct: "No National Level Armed Forces."
Why does the Voice of America report this straight? Does the Somali Navy even have any ships? The last order of battle seems to be 18 years ago and I rather suspect someone has already made off with the torpedoes from those boats.
Unless I'm missing something, the "logistical support" the federal government (which doesn't control much of the country) needs for its Navy appears to be . . . a Navy.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
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1 comment:
As you suggest, these four Somali pirates depend on the U.S. Captain, their so-called hostage. If this kind of thing keeps happening, at some future point we might see an international punitive effort. I like the idea of the U.S. providing airlift for a team of Russian special forces who would do the actual lethal part of the job. At the end of the day, however, the only solution is to restore governance in Somalia, so that we and other maritime states have a government that we can pressure, ally with, support, to clean out the home ports and provide some social safety net to keep the people there from starving as a result. That will be a big order.
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