Our crew had been well trained and used water cannons, self made incendiary bombs, beer bottles and anything else that could be used to battle with them.
Thirty minutes later the pirates gestured for a ceasefire. Then a helicopter from the multinational fleet came to help us.

Peng Weiyuan, Captain, Zhenhua 4

Catching up on the African agenda, looks like tentative steps to get around the piracy problem have been taken by the West.  Hope to do my LC course next year so maybe I’ll get a part of the action at some stage in the future.  Frankly I’m surprised it took this long for Royal to get in on the act.  While Brigade is out in Ghanners, a landlocked AOR should in theory at least free up 539 Assault Squadron for maritime ops.

And there’s a lot to be done.  The Ukranian vessel MV Faina (operating under a Belize flag of convenience) and it’s crew are still being held to ransom.  Not to mention their cargo of 33 T-72s bound for South Sudan seemingly under Kenyan patronage (or Ethiopia?).  Keep up to date with arms deals here.

Meanwhile it remains to be seen whether Somali pirate activity dies down.  Further reports of hijacking attempts on Chinese & Russian vessels are filtering through.  And the corporates are sensing blood,  with some getting results.  There is a deep rooted issue that is lost amid the intrigue & imagery created by the pirates actions.  The lack of anything resembling governance coming out of Mogadishu, together with deep-rooted international ambivalence had allowed illegal poaching to run unchecked in Somali coastal waters despite the warnings.  The long term solution to piracy is to defend the Somali waters against the poachers, many seemingly of Chinese origin.

With the Islamic Courts Union on the march once more, it’s all happening.

On a more serious note, I find it puzzling that after years of virtually ignoring the destruction on a World War scale in the DRC’s various uprisings the BBC last night went with it as their lead story.  Likely had more to do with the fact their African correspondent Orla Guerin optained an exclusive interview with the Tutsi rebel leader than a marked change in their coverage of Congolese affairs…

As always, there’s a lot more to this than serial guilt merchants like the BBC can ever hope to convey – I’ll be reading the experts opinion to remain current.