Pirates are roaming the coasts of north-east-Africa. Now seen as one of the biggest threats to international commercial shipping, many of these modern pirates used to be ordinary fishermen.

The waters of Puntland and Somaliland used to provide a living for local fisherman but in past decades those seas have been exploited and emptied. So many of the fisherman went looking for another means of making money.

Modern piracy Somali waters has been going on since 1995. Former fishermen whose fishing areas had been exploited by foreign commercial vessels attacked ships who were fishing illegally in their territorial waters.

They called themselves "authorised coast guards". But soon, they discovered piracy was an easier way to make money and hijacking developed into a "wild west".

Almost all of society is involved

Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN to Somalia Ambassador Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah suggests that the piracy groups are based on clan and sub-clans system, but they are not exclusively: members of other clans can be accepted if required. At present, the epicenter of piracy is Puntland, where all levels of society are involved, including a number of ministers.

Most of the pirates are unemployed men, living close to coastal bases. Nomadic land based clans aren't very welcome because they cannot swim and know very little about the ocean.

Some pirates only get a basic salary and some are forced into the work. Most of the recruits have very little education and have no chance of finding a job.

Well prepared attacks

The pirates use skiffs and sometimes a mother ship, to watch potential victims. The decision whether or not to attack is based on a few criteria: most of their potential victims have low freeboards, are sailing at low speed -- under 14 Kts (25 km/h) -- , don't have protection or lookouts, and have ladders and outboard equipment.

When they attack, the pirates flank their skiffs to the vessel and shoot with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades to intimidate the crew and make it easy to board.

The US Department of Transportation advises sailors to increase the vessels' speed to the maximum to make it difficult for the pirates to enter. Another strategy is to alter course by zigzagging. To get help, the crew should fire flares, sound alarm signals and notifie area military forces.

When hijacked, ships are sailed to one of the pirate bases where they can be supplied with food, water, weapons and ammunition and other resources while negotiations with the owners take place. Because pirates all seem to follow identical procedures, some experts say there is a central coordination of the pirates activities.

Negotiations begin almost immediately with the ship owner or shipping company. Although it might be scary to be surrounded by heavy armed young men, sailors aboard hijacked ships are rarely mistreated. During the negotiations, the Somali pirates use intermediaries for negotiations and arrange for money delivery. When the ransom is counted, ships are released.

Up to $ 10.000 ransom

A convicted pirate said a single armed hijacker can earn from $6.000 to $10.000 for a $1.000.000 ransom. That is a two or three year salary for an armed guard at a humanitarian agency and much better than a local commercial enterprise would pay.

The pirate explained the breakdown of the ransom as follows; 30% goes to the gun men, 30% to government officials, 20% to the bosses of the organization and 20% investment in future missions (guns, fuel, cigarettes, food etc).

Pirates rely for support upon the fishing communities who provide them with food, water and shelter.
Several religious leaders have condemned piracy and advised their communities not to be seduced by the money. Although irates are attractive among the poor villages, in some clans, women are not allowed to marry a pirate because of the strict culture and Islamic law.

Local economy benefits

Somalia also benefits from piracy: as a result of increased income, pirates improve their livelihood and standard of living. This spending is confined exclusively to Garoowe, the capital city of the Puntland macro region, but penetrates throughout the Puntland economy. With a projected income of nearly thirty million dollars expected from piracy this year, the activity dwarfs the Puntland government income of ten million dollars.

Watch this video to see how the military frees a hijacked ship: