The United States and international maritime authorities have boosted already-dire piracy warnings for vessels off the coast of lawless Somalia following a surge in attempted hijackings.
In a new alert, the US Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) said ships in the region should stay at least 200 nautical miles (370km) from the coast, extending by 150 nautical miles a previously advised no-go zone.
”Due to continuing conditions of armed conflict and lawlessness in Somalia and waters off its coast, mariners are advised to avoid the port of Mogadishu and to remain at least 200 nautical miles distant from the Somali coast,” it said.
ONI began broadcasting the alert over open commercial shipping radio channels on Friday, the same day the US State Department renewed a terrorism alert for several East African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia, as well as Yemen.
The State Department warning noted in particular the threat from an ”increasing number of incidents of maritime piracy near the Horn of Africa and the southern Red Sea near Yemen”.
”When transiting around the Horn of Africa or in the Red Sea near Yemen, it is strongly recommended that vessels travel in convoys and maintain good communications contact at all times,” it said.
The alerts from Washington followed a similar warning issued earlier in the week by the International Maritime Board (IMB).
On Tuesday, the IMB reported that Somali pirates had hijacked or attempted to board at least 32 vessels off the coast since March in increasingly brazen and violent attacks.
The agency also called for international naval vessels in the area to come to the aid of ships threatened in and around Somali waters, echoing appeals made by the country’s largely powerless transitional government.
The new warnings came after an attack on a US-owned cruise ship — the first to target a non-merchant vessel — earlier this month, after which the London-based National Union of Marine, Aviation and Shipping Transport Officers called for the waters off Somalia to be declared a war zone.
In addition to extending the perimeter of waters to be avoided, the ONI alert said all ships even remotely in the vicinity of the Somali coast should step up ”anti-piracy precautions and maintain a heightened state of vigilance”.
It said that as well as opening fire on vessels to intimidate their crews into stopping, pirates have reportedly been using false distress calls to lure ships close to the coast to be seized.
”Therefore, caution should be taken when responding to distress calls keeping in mind it may be a tactic to lure a vessel into a trap,” it said.
Somalia’s 3 700km coast has been unpatrolled since 1991 when strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled, plunging the nation into anarchy with no functioning central government. — Sapa-AFP