{"id":9868,"date":"2012-04-12T16:10:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T14:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/interview-analyst-says-somali-pirates-have-new-weapons-from-libya\/"},"modified":"2012-04-12T16:10:09","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T14:10:09","slug":"interview-analyst-says-somali-pirates-have-new-weapons-from-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/interview-analyst-says-somali-pirates-have-new-weapons-from-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW-Analyst says Somali pirates have new weapons from Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Pirates &#8220;likely to press for higher ransoms&#8221;<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Data comes from interviews with pirates and smugglers<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Wendell Roelf<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>CAPE TOWN, April 12 (Reuters) &#8211; Somali pirates have acquired<br \/>\nsophisticated weaponry, including mines and shoulder-held<br \/>\nmissile launchers from Libya, and are likely to use them in<br \/>\nbolder attacks on shipping, a senior maritime security analyst<br \/>\nsaid on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We found that Libyan weapons are being sold in what is the<br \/>\nworld&#8217;s biggest black market for illegal gun smugglers, and<br \/>\nSomali pirates are among those buying from sellers in Sierra<br \/>\nLeone, Liberia and other countries,&#8221; said Judith van der Merwe,<br \/>\nof the Algiers-based African Centre for the Study and Research<br \/>\non Terrorism.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We believe our information is credible and know that some<br \/>\nof the pirates have acquired ship mines, as well as Stinger and<br \/>\nother shoulder-held missile launchers,&#8221; Van der Merwe told<br \/>\nReuters on the sidelines of an Indian Ocean naval conference.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>After Libya&#8217;s ruler Muammar Gaddafi was killed by rebels in<br \/>\nthe north African state, weaponry from his well-stocked arsenals<br \/>\nmade its way onto the black market, she said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The information was gathered from interviews with gun<br \/>\nsmugglers, pirates and other sources, said Van der Merwe.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Pirates operating from the Somali coast have raked in<br \/>\nmillions of dollars in ransoms from hijacking ships and a report<br \/>\nin 2011 estimated that maritime piracy costs the global economy<br \/>\nbetween $7 billion and $12 billion through higher shipping costs<br \/>\nand ransom payments.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Pirates &#8220;likely to press for higher ransoms&#8221; * Data comes from interviews with pirates and smugglers By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN, April 12 (Reuters) &#8211; 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}