More Pirate Attacks off Somalia

It appears to be high season for Somalia’s pirate industry. On Sunday, just days after the 30-member crew of a French megayacht were released and several pirates arrested by French forces, pirates seized control of the 250-ft Spanish fishing trawler Playa de Bakio in the Gulf of Aden. The 26-member crew are being held captive while officials wait for the pirates’ demands.

Another pirate attack in the same region on Monday, this time against a Japanese oil tanker, was thwarted by a German warship, while security forces stormed a hijacked Dubai-flagged cargo ship on Tuesday, freeing the 16 hostages and arresting seven pirates. Those seven are now facing the death penalty in their homeland.

But Somalia’s heyday of piracy may be quickly coming to a close as several nations, led by the U.S. and France, are pushing hard for a United Nations resolution that will allow member nations to arrest and prosecute pirates in one of the most important — and dangerous — shipping zones in the world. Currently, nations are allowed to pursue pirates only in international waters, so once they reach Somalia’s territorial coastal waters, they’re off limits. For their part, the largely impotent Somali government supports the plan. “The Somali government asks the international community to take action against piracy,” Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein told the Agence France-Presse.