Un Political Office For Somalia News

As a speed boat carrying more than a dozen Somali pirates bore down on their position in the western Indian Ocean, the crew of a Bangladeshi-owned bulk carrier sent out a distress signal and called an emergency hotline.No one reached them in time. The pirates clambered aboard the Abdullah, firing warning shots and taking the captain and second officer hostage, Chief Officer Atiq Ullah Khan said in an audio message to the ship's owners."By the grace of Allah no one has been harmed so far," Khan said in the message, recorded before the pirates took the crew's phones.

Piracy off Somalia’s coast is a symptom of wider problems ashore, and any strategy to tackle it must also deal with its root causes and strengthen regional capacity, the United Nations envoy to the country warned on Nov. 18. He noted that an increased maritime presence is helping to stabilize the situation on the sea but that the number of pirate attacks has not diminished. Between January and September, some 160 piracy incidents were reported in the East African area, with 34 ships being hijacked and more than 450 people taken hostage off the coast of Somalia, according to the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO). The IMO is steering the implementation of the Djibouti Code of Conduct…