“A lot of people in our communities don’t view them as pirates. I think they are defenders of the sea.”
In 2011, Somali piracy peaked. Crews were attacked at gunpoint and many held as hostages for months. The World Bank says there were 243 incidents that year.
After a crackdown involving international navies, attacks plummeted to almost zero.
But since last year there’s been an uptick in incidents. Houthi attacks on shipping using the Suez Canal - in support of the Palestinians in Gaza – drew global attention, and firepower, away from the Somali coastline. And the root causes of the problem – poverty and lack of infrastructure for local fishing communities, and illegal fishing by foreign trawlers – were never addressed.
So could piracy return to the levels of 15 years ago?
Alan @kasujja speaks with a local fisherman from the affected town of Eyl, and to fisheries expert Abdirahman Mohamed.