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U.N. calls for action to fight Somalia pirates

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on all countries with a stake in maritime safety off Somalia to send naval ships and military aircraft to confront growing piracy there.

The measure urging stepped up international action also called for ships and planes to use “the necessary means” to stop piracy. It was adopted under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which means its provisions can be enforced militarily.

The French-drafted resolution said the surge in piracy and armed robbery off Somalia’s coast poses a serious threat “to the prompt, safe and effective delivery of humanitarian aid to Somalia,” where as many as 3.5 million people will reportedly be dependent on food aid by year’s end.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters Wednesday that nearly 90 percent of the food delivered to the country arrives by sea on World Food Program ships.

“Navy vessels from the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Canada have been escorting our ships safely into the ports. Canada’s tour of duty ends on October 23. As yet, no nation has volunteered to take Canada’s place,” he said. “Without escorts, those ships will not arrive. Without that aid, more people will die.”

The resolution notes “that increasingly violent acts of piracy are carried out with heavier weaponry, in a larger area off the coast of Somalia.”

Somali pirates are holding a Ukrainian cargo ship loaded with tanks and heavy weapons hijacked late last month. They initially demanded a $20 million ransom, but reports Tuesday said the demand had dropped to $8 million. A half-dozen U.S. Navy warships have surrounded the MV Faina.

The resolution only applies off Somalia, whose 1,880-mile coastline is the longest in Africa. Most pirate attacks occur in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, to the north of Somalia. But attacks are increasing in the Indian Ocean off eastern Somalia.

A Security Council resolution adopted in June authorized countries, for a period of six months, to enter Somalia’s territorial waters with advance notice and use “all necessary means” to stop acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea.

The new draft resolution has no time limit.

Somalia, a nation of about 8 million people, has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other.

Islamic militants with ties to al-Qaida have been battling the shaky transitional government and its Ethiopian allies since their combined forces pushed the Islamists from the capital in December 2006.

Ban told reporters “the international community is now very seriously looking at how to help their (Somalia’s) security concerns through deployment of (an) international stabilization force.”

“I’m in the process of identifying potential troop contributing countries who can provide troops and funds or resources and other tools,” he said.