Failed attempt to capture a ship in Bossaso

(BRUSSELS2) Is history stammering? The Puntland soldiers who had... taken hostage MV Daesan, a cement-laden Korean vessel they were supposed to guard, were brought to their senses and... home on Wednesday (December 19). They have thus set course for the port of origin, in Bossaso, announced local media such as Garowe Online, under good escort. Two Coast Guard vessels accompanying them.

The cement-laden North Korean vessel was intercepted in Puntland waters last month polluting the bay. And he had been under house arrest for several weeks in the port of Bossaso, under guard. Finally. Or so we thought. Tuesday (December 18), thanks to a relief, in the night, the team of 8 soldiers who were assigned to the guard decided to change board, to capture the ship and its crew of 33 men. The soldiers ordered to leave the port. But " after several hours at sea and "discussions between some of the soldier-abductors" and the Puntland authorities, they would have reconsidered their decision. They will be brought to justice promise the authorities of this autonomous region of Somalia, which does not exclude that "pirates" were involved directly or indirectly in this attempt (*).

This episode is reminiscent of the birth of piracy in this region, which saw some of the Somali coast guards become pirates the day the UN training program ended. It also illustrates the difficulty of training coastguards in a country that is not yet stabilized. In retrospect, the mistrust of certain European countries which did not want to form Somali coast guards could be justified. The EUCAP Nestor mission, currently being deployed, has moreover only received a mandate in Somalia to train coastal police, able to track down pirate camps, rather than police at sea as in other countries. of the region (Kenya, Seychelles...).

(*) We can also have another explanation that the crew bribed the guards to be "kidnapped", which could thus give them their freedom. But this is a novel no doubt 🙂