Lawless Somalia's largely powerless transitional government on Friday signed a multi-million-dollar two-year deal with a US maritime security firm to fight rampant piracy in the waters off its unpatrolled coast.
Waters off the coast of Somalia are considered among the most dangerous in the world.
Pirates firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns earlier this month tried to board a US-owned cruise liner about 160km off the Somali coast.
New York-based Topcat Marine Security Inc signed a deal worth more than US$50 million with the Somali Transitional Federal Government in Nairobi to escort ships plying Somali waters.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi, who witnessed the deal, said his government recognized the damage caused by pirates and hoped Topcat would help end the piracy menace.
"The agreement signed today will defend Somalia's territorial waters, defeat the pirates," Gedi said, "The government wishes to express its dismay at these abhorrent actions."
Peter Casini, Topcat's head of research and development, said once in operation his company would target a mother ship used by the pirates to launch attacks on passing vessels.
"We will end the piracy very quickly, there is no question about that," Casini told reporters. "There is a ship that is launching small ships 75 to 100 miles [120km to 160km] from the shore, our goal is to take the mother ship."
Gedi in the past has appealed for foreign navies to send gunboats to battle the pirates.
"This agreement will defend Somalia's territorial waters, defeat the pirates and put an end to the illegal fishing and poaching of our precious natural marine resources," Gedi told reporters.
"With this maritime program in place, we are confident that that Somalia's territorial waters will again be safe for international shipping [and] legalized fishing, to the benefit of the people of Somalia," he said.
Under the first phase of the contract, TopCat will train Somali coast guards and special forces to monitor the anarchic nation's 3,700km coast.
It will also help create five coastal security bases, provide Somali authorities with advanced communications equipment, high-speed patrol boats, ground vehicles and helicopters, officials said.
Casini said the speedboats to be provided by the firm are some of the fastest in the world and are "the worst nightmare for pirates and those fomenting terror will have no place to run or hide."
Gedi, whose impoverished fledgling government has been hamstrung by internal disputes, said the money for the contract would come from foreign donors but declined to say which countries would provide the funding.
The deal was signed amid a surge in violent hijackings and attempted boardings of vessels by increasingly brazen Somali pirates that has sparked dire new maritime warnings for commercial shipping.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS