Somali President Urges More Counter-piracy Help

President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, says more financial and military support from abroad needed to fight terrorism and piracy

Speaking at the opening of the two-day Marine Counter Piracy Conference, which runs in its 2nd edition in the Gulf Arab Emirate (UAE) of Dubai, the widely internationally recognized Somali president said that his country was suffering immensely from piracy.

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia said: "Criminal acts from pirates range from illegal fishery, violent seizure of foreign cargo ships, killings and rape. Our country suffers economically and our civil society is terrorized and humiliated."

The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia has been fighting since 2006 against Al Shabaab insurgents. In August 2011, the government forces managed to force the Shabaab militia, regarded by the United States as an affiliate of the Al-Qaida network, completely out of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

However, Al Shabaab still controls most of south of the East African country and support pirates groups in the Gulf of Aden. Since August 2009, NATO naval forces have been deploying military ships to the region in order to protect cargo vessels against attacks from pirates groups.

President Ahmed said that piracy was not a national or regional problem but a global challenge, citing figures compiled by the International Maritime Bureau.