Photo | AFP A militia man stands on a beach in the town of Hobyo. Many Somali pirates say they would happily stop their illegal trade if they got jobs in factories.
Friday, September 03, 2010
The pirates of old often took to the seas to rebel against the social order but in lawless Somalia, many pirates say they would happily pay taxes and take a job in a factory.
Among the pirates of Hobyo, there is no hint of libertarianism nor any assertion of an alternative lifestyle. Most describe their activity as a crime of survival.
Ahmed Osoble, 27, is too young to have witnessed any form of organised government and like many young men in central Somalia’s remote coastal areas relied entirely on fishing for his livelihood.
“Since around 2003, the quantity of fish in our waters started decreasing and it became almost impossible to live off the sea,” says soft-spoken Ahmed.
He remembers the day in 2008 he set off on his first piracy mission.
“I wasn’t scared, it was a do-or-die situation. I had nothing to eat.”
Last year, he spent several months in detention in the Seychelles before being swapped with hostages.
Now he is still a pirate but does not go out to sea, has never successfully hijacked a ship, and struggles to make ends meet.
“If I could get a job in a fish factory near Hobyo and a pay every month, I would start right away,” he says.
The problem is that there is no functioning industrial and marketing facility in Hobyo, elsewhere on the country’s coast, nor anywhere else in the country.
Ecoterra International, a group which has campaigned for the protection of coastal communities’ rights and resources in the region, has offered to implement such a project but no significant funding has yet come through.
Ismail Haji Noor is in charge of anti-piracy efforts for Galmudug State, a regional administration that recognises the federal government in Mogadishu but is trying to obtain more international recognition.
“Until we get more help, piracy will remain a reality,” he says. “But what the Europeans are offering at the moment is a prison sentence or a bullet.” (AFP)
Source: AFP