Deodatus Mfugale, AfricaNews reporter in Dar es Salem, Tanzania
Senior officials from Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are meeting in Cairo, Egypt to find out ways of dealing with piracy in the Gulf of Aden and in the waters off the Horn of Africa. Piracy is currently on the increase hence the need to find a long lasting solution to the problem.
The meeting is taking place as piracy is escalating in the area with the latest major event being the hijacking of a Saudi supertanker, the Sirius Star. The ship with its 25 crew is now anchored off Eyle in Somalia and the pirates are said to demand a ransom of $25 million.
Media reports quoted the spokesman for Vela International Marine Ltd., the tanker's owner, as having neither denied nor confirmed negotiating for ransom with the hijackers and that the company has maintained its no-comment decision. However AFP has said the pirates have given the Saudi company ten days to give the ransom money short of which they “would do something disastrous.”
Two other hijackings, a cargo ship and a fishing vessel, followed that of the Sirius Star, bringing to eight the total number of ships hijacked by Somali pirates in two weeks and 95 in this year. It is this serious trend of affairs that has forced the five nations to convene the meeting to discuss what should be done to solve the problem.
An official from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki, said that all options are open in trying to solve the crisis indicating that paying ransom could be one of them. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister had on Wednesday also confirmed that the ship's owners were negotiating with the pirates.
However British Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, was of the view that paying ransom would only encourage more hijacking of ships.” But whatever approach we take in dealing with this problem the security and safety of the hostages must come first,” he said.
While the meeting is going on in Cairo other nations are taking measures including deploying their navy ships in the area. Britain's Royal Navy, for example, is co-coordinating the deployment of the European force in the Gulf of Aden. Russia is also sending more warships to confront the pirates. One of its destroyers, the Neustrashimy, has been in the Gulf of Aden for months.
Yet, even with patrols by navy ships from various countries, pirates have found their way and hijacked ships unabated, extending their area of operation to include the high seas.
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