Pentagon Warns Ships as Pirates Again Prowl Waters Off Somalia
By HELENE COOPERAPRIL 23, 2017
CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti — Commercial ships must once again shore up their defenses against forced boardings at sea, United States Defense Department officials said on Sunday, warning
that Somali pirates are returning to waters off East Africa after five years of calm.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that while he was not calling for a response yet from the United States Navy, a half-dozen pirate attacks on commercial ships off the coast of Somalia in the past eight weeks meant
that civilian mariners and shipping companies must again be on high alert.
Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, is just across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen,
and the American outpost here has been used as an operational base for missions including surveillance of Islamic extremist organizations like the Shabab in East Africa and helping the coalition led by Saudi Arabia in its fight against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.
Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the head of the United States Africa Command, said drought
and famine in Somalia are probably behind the recent spike in attacks, in which pirates have boarded commercial ships and seized food and oil.
The general’s comments came during a news conference with Mr. Mattis at Camp Lemonnier, the American base established after the Sept. 11 attacks,
when the military was looking for a foothold in Africa from which to monitor Qaeda groups on the continent and in the Middle East.
About one-third of the world’s commercial ships travel near Djibouti, through the Gulf of Aden
and toward the Mediterranean, and the return of attacks may mean another coordinated international effort to fight piracy, officials said.