Frequent pirate attacks in Somalia have been threatening commercial shipping and fishing and impeding the delivery of humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of Somalis. The World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) jointly issued an appeal in July 2007 for action to halt piracy off the coast of the country. Both UN agencies have been pushing the UN Security Council to ask the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to help tackle the problem.

Map of WFP in Somalia

Delivery of supplies by sea has been a logistical and security challenge since the collapse of the last national government in 1991 due to the rise in the frequency of pirate attacks. This has resulted in higher shipping costs and a significant reduction in the number of cargo vessels in the water. WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran stated that close to 80 per cent of its assistance to Somalia is shipped by sea, "but because of piracy we have seen the availability of ships willing to carry food to the country cut by half". There were 15 attacks on ships in or near Somali waters from January to July 2007-two of these on WFP-contracted vessels, wherein a security guard was killed-compared to 10 such attacks in 2006. WFP hoped to deliver food assistance for 1 million people in Somalia, as already high levels of malnutrition had worsened with predicted crop failures. Ms. Sheeran also stated: "Pirates may have a romantic image on the silver screen these days, but the picture might not be quite so pretty from the point of view of someone stuck in a camp for internally displaced people in Somalia, dependent on food assistance for survival."

Somalia: drought, floods, violence and crop failure Photo WFP 2006/Bruno Stevens

In a presidential statement in March 2006, the Security Council responded to reports of piracy, encouraging UN Member States with naval vessels and military aircraft operating in international waters and airspace adjacent to the coast of Somalia to be vigilant against pirate attacks and to take action to protect merchant shipping, especially vessels transporting humanitarian aid. Due to rising attacks in 2007, IMO undertook a number of steps, including intensifying its coordination with WFP and the navies operating in the Western Indian Ocean region, to bolster assistance to merchant ships. IMO suggested that the Council could act beyond its presidential statement and request Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to give consent to ships to enter the country's territorial waters when engaging in operations against pirates or suspected pirates and armed robbers.

IMO Secretary General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos requested UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to raise the issue of Somali piracy to the Security Council so that it could ask the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to address the problem. In conjunction with other multi-faceted initiatives taken by IMO to address the issue effectively, "this latest high-level approach to the Security Council, through Mr. Ban, will, I believe, help considerably in alleviating the situation, especially if support and assistance to ships is enhanced", he stated.

Ms. Sheeran said that much more needs to be done to address the problem of piracy, adding that WFP has been much encouraged by the IMO actions and was "grateful for the continuing presence in the seas off Somalia of naval forces from several nations". However, WFP "would like to see a more coordinated and robust approach to dealing with the problem of piracy from the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, from neighbouring countries that have influence and from the African Union", Ms. Sheeran emphasized. All those addressing the problem, including WFP, "need to explore how these resources can be brought more heavily into play to protect shipping and thereby the delivery by sea of life-saving humanitarian assistance."

Somalian Camps Photo WFP/Peter Smerdon

Somalia has suffered ongoing crises of drought, floods, wars and instability for many years. Conditions for Somalis and refugees and internally displaced persons in the region have been being worsened by current rising inflation rates, predictions of major crop failures and rising violence. These already dire circumstances make dealing with piracy in Somali waters even more crucial.