A video grab from an undated television footage shows pirates on the beach in the town of Eyl in the north of Somalia. The United Nations should send peacekeepers to Somalia urgently to stop the strife that is fuelling piracy and is being aggravated by feuding politicians, the African Union's top diplomat said on November 20, 2008. Gunmen from the chaotic Horn of Africa country grabbed world headlines with spectacular November 15 capture of a huge Saudi Arabian supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of oil, the biggest ship hijacking in history.REUTERS/Reuters TV (SOMALIA)
From Yahoo News/Reuters:
BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) – As dawn breaks over the Indian Ocean each morning, elders in Somali pirate bases sip strong coffee and clutch mobile phones to their ears, eager to hear the latest from the gunmen out at sea.
Have any more ships been hijacked or ransom talks concluded? Any news of the Western warships hunting them?
Last weekend's spectacular capture of a Saudi Arabian supertanker loaded with oil worth $100 million has jacked up the stakes in what is probably the only growth industry in the failed Horn of Africa state.
Massive ransoms have brought rapid development to former fishing villages that now thrive with business and boast new beachside hotels, patronized by cash-rich buccaneers who have become local celebrities virtually overnight.
Investors have been attracted from around Somalia.
Read more ....
My Comment: I find it amazing that a bunch of unemployed, uneducated, and starving fisherman can band together and wreck havoc on the world's international shipping, and bandoozle navies many times their size.