Danish company pays ransom to release pirated ship, crew

Yogi Berra said that “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.” This may well be true, but here is a story that has to do with security on the high seas — but which also brings a whiff of centuries past: The Danish government says the owners of a Danish cargo ship seized by Somali pirates in June paid a ransom to secure its return. A spokesman said the government was disappointed, but understood why the Danica White’s owners had paid for the release of the ship and its five crew. No details of the deal were given, but Danish television reported that the pirates had demanded $1.5 million. The pirates turned the vessel over to a French warship on Wednesday, and it was expected to arrive in Djibouti this weekend. Denmark planned to send a plane to bring the crew home, the government spokesman said.

The Danish ship was hijacked off the Somali coast on 2 June while heading for the Kenyan port of Mombasa to deliver a cargo of building materials. Days after the ship was captured, a U.S. ship fired several warning shots across its bow and destroyed three boats the pirates had used in their attack and were towing behind the Danish vessel. The U.S. ship stopped its pursuit, however, after the pirates navigated the Danica White into Somalia’s territorial waters, where the United States does not have jurisdiction. Somalia’s waters are among the most dangerous in the world. Somali pirates are trained fighters and veterans of the on-going civil war in the Somalia, and often use speedboats equipped with satellite phones and Global Positioning System technology. They target passenger and cargo vessels for ransom or loot, and use the money to buy weapons.

Somalia no longer exists as a state in any meaningful sense. The country has a weak but internationally recognised central government, but that government, called the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), currently controls only small slivers in the central region of Somalia (observers say that even this is an exaggeration, and that it is not exactly clear what the TFG has control over). De facto authority in the north of the country resides in the hands of the governments for the unrecognized entities of Somaliland, Maakhir, Galmudug, and Puntland, and in the south of the country and the Galgadud region no government exists at all, and different tribal militias battle for dominance. Violence and disintegration have characterized Somalia since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre.

The United States has been worried for a while about the growth of al Queda influence in Somalia, as the organization hopes to use the state of chaos in the country to establish training and supply camps, as it did in Afghanistan before 1991 and is now doing in the north-west territories of Pakistan. Two months ago a local Islamic militia tied to al Queda moved on the TFG in an attempt to take over the central authority. Encouraged by the United States, neighboring Ethiopia invaded Somalia and squashed the Islamic rebellion in short order. The United States has considerable — perhaps the adjective “active” would be more accurate — if stealthy, military and intelligence asstes in the country, and they quietly hunt down and kill al Queda and al Queda-supported local operatives, while also engaging in efforts at local community building, water well drilling, vetereniary help to herders, and more. The latest worry for the United States is the growing support by Eritrea, Ethiopia’s nemesis, of Islamic activity in Somalia. Look for increasing U.S. pressure — some more visible, some less so — on the Eritrean government to cease and desist.