Somali piracy: Years of terror and ransoms
In April 2005, MV Feisty Gas–a Hong Kong LPG tanker–was sailing the Indian ocean, close to the coast of one of the world's most politically unstable nations. Earlier that year, Somalia faced tremendous unrest when a police chief was shot dead in the capital, and the newly minted cabinet had to flee the country.
The pirates who attacked MV Feisty Gas would originally have been part of the communities who lived along the coast of Somalia, living off the fishing industry. With the country's abundant fishing resources left undefended due to a lack of stable authority or a navy, foreign fishing vessels started exploiting the situation with technology like underwater lights and illegal nets.
Some Somali fishermen took matters into their own hands, and since the early 90s, started conducting small-scale pirate activities to protect fishing resources. By the mid 2000s, however, amid continued political instability, piracy increased in the region.
MV Feisty Gas from Hong Kong was one of the most ambitious attempts at piracy in the region until then, fetching a ransom of USD 315,000. In 2005, a total of eight vessels were captured.
Attacks continued through 2006, with another eight vessels captured and ransomed.
Between 2006 and 2009, Ethiopia intervened in the Somali civil war against the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a political organisation who had taken over the government in 2006 and enacted effective steps against piracy. As the war raged on, piracy gained strength again.
In 2007, a Danish vessel named MV Danica White fetched 723,000 dollars, as the attacks increased in profile and number, rising to 11 captures that year.
Piracy increased dramatically in 2008, with a total of 22 hijackings. Ships from Spain, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, Thailand, and France were captured and released for ransoms that often exceeded the million dollar mark.
One of the notable piracy incidents at this time was the capture of MV Faina, a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 tanks, alongside ammunition and arms. The pirates demanded an eye-watering USD 14 million, but eventually settled for 3.2 million dollars.
Piracy along the Somalian coast and in the Indian ocean became a major headache for the international community between 2009 and 2011, with 95 hijackings in three years, according to data by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and World Bank. Ransoms rose sharply, with cumulative revenue reaching around USD 300 million during these years. On average, a ship fetched USD 2.20 million in 2009, 2.67 million in 2010, and 5.04 million in 2011.
Among these ships was a Bangladeshi vessel named MV Jahan Moni. With 25 crew and 43,000 tonnes of nickel ore, the ship was captured in December, 2010, and then ransomed for USD 4.72 million.
Starting from 2008, with authorisation from the Somali government, foreign countries were allowed to fight piracy in Somali waters. Eventually, piracy attacks decreased. In 2012, only eight hijackings took place.
Since then, piracy off the coast of Somalia had largely been considered a problem solved. Attacks were few and far between, and meanwhile, Somalia began to stabilise. Although things have remained turbulent, with insurgencies like Al-Shabaab waging war, Somali piracy was kept in check.
In fact, in January 2023, the High Risk Area status was lifted from the Indian Ocean due to a lack of significant pirate activity.
However, the situation turned following Israel's invasion of Gaza last year. Houthi rebels in Yemen have created major disruptions in the Red Sea. With the international community's attention shifted elsewhere, in November, 2023, a Liberian-flagged ship owned by an Israeli billionaire was attacked, stoking fears that Somali piracy is making a comeback.
The hijacking of MV Abdullah, a Bangladeshi vessel, marks a return to large-scale attacks by Somali pirates. Bangladesh waits with bated breath for the safe return of each and every crew member.