African Union Mission In Somalia News

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), the world’s leading maritime services provider, is celebrating the awards of ISO 22000:2005 – Food Safety Management System and ISO 9001:2008 for the company’s supply chain operations in Dubai, Mombasa and Mogadishu. Ceremonies recently took place at its global headquarters in the UK and in its regional Head Office in Dubai. As a pre-requisite to fulfilling the requirements of a three year (plus two year option) contract with the United Nations to supply the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), ISS had to meet a number of operational criteria relating to the procurement, supply chain management, transportation, warehousing and distribution of food to the Mission.

Attendees at the IQPC Offshore Patrol Vessels Middle East 2013 conference agree that what happens at sea in the Arabian Gulf and the Middle East has implications that ripple, or more correctly rumble throughout the globe. Speakers and panelists underscored the importance of maritime domain awareness and security for military, commercial, legal and environmental reasons, and how they are all connected. The IQPC Offshore Patrol Vessel conference at the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi is being attended by naval, coast guard, security, and other maritime and military professionals.

The EU has announced that it will provide additional support of more than €124 million to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). This new financial support by the EU will cover costs including troop allowances for all AMISOM soldiers, police and civilian components of the mission, as well as operational costs of the mission headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. This support will be critical in allowing AMISOM to continue to fulfill its United Nations Security Council mandate to carry out active peace support operations across Somalia. Andris Piebalgs, EU Commissioner for Development said, “A safer and more secure environment in Somalia will benefit the Somali people and development of the country as a whole.

EU Naval Force welcomes French frigate FS Courbet to the EU Naval Force's operation Atalanta off the coast of Somalia. After navigating the Suez Canal and Bab-el-Mandeb strait, the French frigate FS Courbet has joined the EU Naval Force to relieve the FS Surcouf which has been on station since December 2012. The sister warships met in Djibouti for the handover. FS Courbet departed from her home base in Toulon, France, with a Panther helicopter from the French Naval Aviation 36F Flottille and a Vessel Protection Detachment (VPD) from Estonia on board.

Inchcape Shipping Serviceshas been awarded a major three year contract with the United Nations to supply food and bottled water to thousands of AMISOM troops in Somalia. The UN chose ISS as the preferred provider to deliver its food rations to the 12,000 troops currently deployed by AMISOM (The African Union Mission in Somalia). AMISOM conducts peace support operations to stabilise the country and is a regional peacekeeping mission approved by the United Nations. On signing the contract at the UN Building in New York, Jesper Steenbuch, Executive Vice President for ISS Supply Chain Solutions, said: “This award signifies ISS’ continued expansion into supply chain management and is a major milestone directly in line with our overall business strategy.

Operation Atalanta (EU NAVFOR) provided protection to MV Gigante, a ship chartered for AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) to bring supplies to the African Union peacekeeping force based in Mogadishu. The German frigate Bremen and the French frigate Guépratte took turns to carry out this mission, from the south Red Sea to Mogadishu. As with the World Food Programme vessels, protecting logistics for AMISOM is part of the mandated tasks of the EU Naval Force -  Operation Atalanta and is part of the Comprehensive Approach of the European Union in the fight against piracy.

Remarks by Andrew J. Shapiro, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, given to the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC (March 27, 2012). Thank you for inviting me here today. I want to thank the Center for American Progress [CAP] for having me here to speak on the important subject of piracy off the Horn of Africa. CAP is a tremendous leader in developing new ideas and in approaching issues in new ways. I come here before you today to talk about an issue that the Obama administration has also had to approach in new and innovative ways. Despite the romantic notions surrounding piracy of previous centuries, modern day piracy represents a new and complex threat to the international community.

EU NAVFOR hosted a press conference on 20 February 2012 to present an update on Operation ATALANTA, piracy off the Horn of Africa and a view towards future developments. The briefing was hosted by Operation Commander Rear Admiral Duncan L. Potts with Deputy Operation Commander Rear Admiral Rainer Endres and the NATO Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, Commodore Bruce Belliveau. Countering piracy in the Indian Ocean is an international concern having become a sophisticated criminal business exploiting the geographic feature of the Gulf of Aden and the Arabic Sea.

At first light on 12 January 2012, having just completed the escort of a World Food Programme ship carrying food-aid into Somalia and while operating close to the Somali port of Mogadishu, the EU NAVFOR Flagship, the ESPS PATINO, was approached by one skiff with a group of suspected pirates onboard. The suspected pirates opened fire with light calibre weapons and tried to board the PATINO. The ship’s force-protection team returned fire in self-defense and the ship’s helicopter was launched.

8th December 2010 marked the 2nd anniversary of the start of Operation ATALANTA, the European Union’s Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) counter-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin. The anniversary coincided with the confirmation by the EU that the operation would be extended until December 2012. Over the past two years, the EUNAVFOR’s primary mission has been to protect United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) vessels against pirate attack by providing close escort to the ships carrying much needed humanitarian aid to Somalia.

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…