Piracy 'delaying vital food aid from reaching Somalia'

Somali pirates are notorious for being behind a spate hijackings on the high seas but their activities have also exacerbated food shortages in the Horn of Africa, a senior official from the African Development Bank has said.

Professor Mthuli Ncube, who fulfills a dual role as the bank's chief economist and vice president, says that piracy has both prevented and delayed vital food aid from being delivered to Somalia.

This has worsened the humanitarian situation inside the country which -- alongside neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia -- is experiencing one of the most severe droughts and subsequent food shortages in living memory, he explains.

Some 12.4 million people in the Horn of Africa currently require humanitarian assistance as a result of food shortages, the U.N. estimates.

"[Piracy] affects the transit of food quickly, where it's needed by refugees," Ncube says.

"It also brings up the costs of transporting the food and it goes beyond that into tourism, into the exploitation of hydro-carbons ... the issue around fishing and so forth," he adds.

"But more urgently it is about delivery of food that is being affected."

Ncube cites the lack of a respected or powerful central authority in Somalia as a key factor in the rise of pirate activity in and around its waters recent years.

The country has been without a government since 1991, meaning there is a lack of security and infrastructure that would allow the safe passage of aid to areas worst affected by the droughts.

Individual charities and agencies are even being forced to negotiate with armed groups or offer monetary incentives to get help into the country -- at considerable risk to their own staff -- Ncube says.

"Unfortunately the government is at the core of this [issue] and without a government you can't police. There's no military, organized military to provide security," he says.

"This is impacting on the ability of anyone to help the people in Somalia, so at the end of the day we just have to deal with the governance. That is the core of everything," he adds.

Ncube also highlights the lack of protection offered to Somali fisherman from international bodies such as NATO in preventing illegal fishing in Somali waters as another major contributory factor towards piracy.

"It also brings up the costs of transporting the food and it goes beyond that into tourism, into the exploitation of hydro-carbons ... the issue around fishing and so forth," he adds.

"But more urgently it is about delivery of food that is being affected."

Ncube cites the lack of a respected or powerful central authority in Somalia as a key factor in the rise of pirate activity in and around its waters recent years.

The country has been without a government since 1991, meaning there is a lack of security and infrastructure that would allow the safe passage of aid to areas worst affected by the droughts.

Individual charities and agencies are even being forced to negotiate with armed groups or offer monetary incentives to get help into the country -- at considerable risk to their own staff -- Ncube says.

"Unfortunately the government is at the core of this [issue] and without a government you can't police. There's no military, organized military to provide security," he says.

"This is impacting on the ability of anyone to help the people in Somalia, so at the end of the day we just have to deal with the governance. That is the core of everything," he adds.

Ncube also highlights the lack of protection offered to Somali fisherman from international bodies such as NATO in preventing illegal fishing in Somali waters as another major contributory factor towards piracy.

Source: cnn