* Pirates “likely to press for higher ransoms”
* Data comes from interviews with pirates and smugglers
By Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN, April 12 (Reuters) – Somali pirates have acquired
sophisticated weaponry, including mines and shoulder-held
missile launchers from Libya, and are likely to use them in
bolder attacks on shipping, a senior maritime security analyst
said on Thursday.
“We found that Libyan weapons are being sold in what is the
world’s biggest black market for illegal gun smugglers, and
Somali pirates are among those buying from sellers in Sierra
Leone, Liberia and other countries,” said Judith van der Merwe,
of the Algiers-based African Centre for the Study and Research
on Terrorism.
“We believe our information is credible and know that some
of the pirates have acquired ship mines, as well as Stinger and
other shoulder-held missile launchers,” Van der Merwe told
Reuters on the sidelines of an Indian Ocean naval conference.
After Libya’s ruler Muammar Gaddafi was killed by rebels in
the north African state, weaponry from his well-stocked arsenals
made its way onto the black market, she said.
The information was gathered from interviews with gun
smugglers, pirates and other sources, said Van der Merwe.
Pirates operating from the Somali coast have raked in
millions of dollars in ransoms from hijacking ships and a report
in 2011 estimated that maritime piracy costs the global economy
between $7 billion and $12 billion through higher shipping costs
and ransom payments.
Continued…
