Information suggests that Al-Qaeda affiliated groups remain interested in maritime attacks in the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen, the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme (SAP) reported from Mombasa.“Although it is unclear how they would proceed, it may be similar in nature to the attacks against the USS Cole in October 2000 and the M/V Limburg in October 2002 where a small to mid-size boat laden with explosives was detonated. Other more sophisticated methods of attack could include missiles or projectiles,” Andrew Mwangura, the head of the organization was quoted as saying by Ecoterra International, a human rights and nature protection organization monitoring the maritime activities around the Horn of Africa.

According to the Ecoterra report, although the time and location of such an attack is unknown, ships in the Red Sea, Bab-al-Mandeb Strait , and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen are at the greatest risk of becoming targets of such an attack.

All vessels transiting the waters in the vicinity of Yemen are urged to operate at a heightened state of readiness and should maintain strict 24-hour visual and radar watches, and regularly report their position, course, and speed to the UKMTO Transit corridor.

Vessels are at greatest risk in areas of restricted maneuverability and while in/near port or at anchor, SAP aid, according to the report, which added that merchant vessels are requested to report any suspicious activity to the UKMTO.

For its part, Ecoterra said there is an increased level of violence preparedness and violence on all sides.

The organization said it “has received reports from Somalia, which say that powerful weapons like missiles have been transported to the coastal areas, where recently European naval commandoes, obviously believing to have spotted potential piracy skiffs beached along the coast, destroyed fishing boats of ordinary fishermen, which caused the anger of local people to increase significantly after the Norwegian navy already had killed innocent fishermen from Yemen and Somalia in a botched mid-nightly attempt to control fishing vessels in a natural harbour at the Gulf of Aden coast of Somalia.”

Anti-Piracy Measures – Scuttle Mother Ships

Additionally, Ecoterra said the international anti-piracy patrol has admitted that it is now pursuing a policy of hunting down and destroying pirate mother ships.

“Several recent incidents, that resulted in the destruction of mother ships, indicated that this was the case. But now this has been confirmed, along with the warning that even if there is not enough evidence to prosecute the pirates, the mother ship will be destroyed, and the crew dumped on a Somali beach,” according to Ecoterra.

Late February NATO confirmed that it had prevented a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia.

“On Sunday 28 February 2010 the NATO flagship HDMS Absalon undertook direct action to disrupt the piracy in the Somali Basin by scuttling a pirate mother skiff, one of the large, open boats that pirates use to transport and support their attack teams to offshore hunting areas,” NATO said in press release.

The Absalon is the flagship of NATO’s counter-piracy operation Ocean Shield off the Horn of Africa.

According to NATO, the pirate’s mother skiff was scuttled by use of specialist teams from Absalon after it was intercepted by a boarding team.

“If there is enough evidence to prosecute, arrangements have been made for Kenya or Seychelles to do it. Western nations are providing these two nations with cash and other assistance to make these prosecutions possible,” Ecoterra said.

According to Ecoterra, the international anti-pirate patrol is targetting pirate mother ships because these vessels are necessary if the pirates are to attack ships far (up to 1,500 kilometers) off the coast.

Mother ships (usually stolen sea-going fishing ships) are spotted leaving known pirate bases, and, when they get far enough out to indicate they are going after distant targets, they are intercepted by a warship. If weapons and boarding equipment is found, the pirates are arrested and prosecuted, and the mother ships and speedboats destroyed. If the pirates managed to dump their weapons and boarding gear overboard, the mother ship is sunk anyway, according to Ecoterra.
Meanwhile, more merchant ships are carrying armed guards, and there have been at least four incidents this year where these guards fired their weapons to drive off pirates.

Most merchant ships have noted that all the ships taken of late are those that did not heed the advice of the anti-piracy patrol, said Ecoterra, adding that “this advice includes travelling through the Gulf of Aden in the two patrolled corridors, or, better yet, waiting for the regular convoys the patrol escorts through the corridors daily. Even ships travelling the corridor, or with a convoy, are advised to post additional lookouts, and radio the patrol immediately if they spot a pirate speed boat. Any small boat near the corridors, equipped with a powerful outboard engine (something a fisherman could not afford, but necessary to overtake a merchant ship), should be considered suspicious, and reported.”

Interestingly, Ecoterra said that ship captains are also advised of measures they can take to repel boarders, “as it’s been observed that the pirates will give up if crew resistance keeps them off the ship for more than a half hour. But the crew must have water hoses at the ready, and crewmen practiced in the use of high pressure water against boarders.”

“The Gulf of Aden has become, for the moment, a place where a guarded (in the corridor or a convoy) ship is impossible to take. If the campaign against the mother ships succeeds, the pirates may get discouraged, and look for other work (like the lucrative Yemeni smuggling run). But first, the pirates will try to find chinks in the new, improved, anti-piracy tactics,” Ecoterra said.

Courtesy:shiptalk.com