The international community can celebrate a success in holding the pirates of Somalia at bay by making it unprofitable to stay in business:
It’s a testament to the success of recent antipiracy measures that hijackings of major shipments off the coast of Somalia plummeted to zero in 2013, according to the final numbers compiled by the U.S. Navy and released last week. The pirates are also trying less often: there were nine suspected attempts in 2013 in the shipping lanes that pass between Yemen and Somalia, down from seven hijackings and 25 attempts a year earlier. In 2009, there were 51 hijackings and 130 attempts, according to the Navy, including the failed attempt to take the Maersk Alabama that formed the basis of the Hollywood film Captain Phillips.
Attacks on shipments off the coast of Somalia, a vital sea-lane that sees nearly 25,000 passages a year, have dropped so significantly that the region is no longer Africa’s hot spot of piracy. In West Africa, where oil tankers sitting just off the coast are lucrative targets for Nigerian rebel militias and regional organized crime, there were nine hijackings and 48 confrontations with pirates in 2013. In some cases, these pirates will go straight for the crew to hold for ransom: two Americans were kidnapped from their oil ship off Nigeria in October and released weeks later. “With fewer attacks off Somalia, attention has moved to the Gulf of Guinea,” the IMB said in a report in October. That’s a sea change for a shipping industry that has paid Somali pirates more than $400 million in ransom money over the past seven years, according to some estimates.
Of course, if we look away, they'll come back since we didn't solve the problem the traditional way--landing and killing as many pirates as we could.
But for now, mission accomplished. So will the international community turn to West Africa next? Hard to say.
What isn't hard to say is that the international community won't turn their attention to the South China Sea where a coast guard is attacking fishing vessels under the pretext of keeping foreigners from plundering "their" waters:
Chinese law states that any ships that violate the fishing regulations will be forced out of the zone, have their catch confiscated, and face fines of up to $82,600. In some cases, fishing boats could be confiscated and their crew prosecuted under Chinese law.
It is the first time China has made a clear legal claim to disputed fishing grounds claimed by Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and other states in the region.
A Chinese maritime patrol boat struck a Vietnamese fishing boat Jan. 3 near the Paracel Islands in the first incident under the new rules, according to Vietnamese state media. The Chinese used Tasers and batons to subdue the fishermen and confiscated their 5-ton catch of fish along with fishing equipment. The incident was reported on the website Fishermen Stories.
This is a new Chinese law.
It looks a lot like piracy, given that this is taking place in international waters. But China has a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. So the international community won't rally to protect innocent mariners under attack in the South China Sea.
