Got Ships? Somali Navy Chief speaks out

Mogadishu.... We have a problem....

If you have wondered why the Somali pirates have increasingly become a problem in the area, this recent interview with the Navy Chief of the country sheds some considerable light on why the criminals seem to own the waters off the Somali coast...

Somali navy chief: World's worst job?

If you think you face an uphill challenge at work today, spare a thought for Farah Ahmed Omar, the man in charge of Somalia's navy.

He has neither boats nor equipment and admits he has not been to sea for 23 years.

The interim government does not control much of the 3,000-km (1,860-mile) Somali coastline and then there is the headache of plentiful pirates.

Mr Omar said he was first put in charge of the navy in 1982, but speaking to the BBC by phone from the capital, Mogadishu, he did not sound too daunted by the task ahead.

"Today there is a big piracy problem and we are ashamed. But we think they [the pirates] don't have sophisticated equipment as they just have fishing boats and small arms which are easy to get in Somalia," he said.

The chief would like the opportunity to eradicate the piracy and says he needs equipment and resources to accomplish his goals..

The nation's Navy has not been operational since the early 90's.

Be interesting what they would achieve if donated some patrol boats ?

reply to post by sy.gunson


Trouble , probably those patrol boats would be either stolen giving the pirates better armed boats, or sold off by a poor corrupt crew to pirates who end up with better armed boats.
God knows what would happen if the pirates ever got better equipment, every ship in the area would be taken hostage.

Originally posted by JacKatMtn
Mogadishu.... We have a problem....


The nation's Navy has not been operational since the early 90's.

And neither has the Somali central govt since Siad Barre was overthrown in '91. A govt in exile or a govt that controls one or two cities, just doesn't cut it.

if the only had some nice resources like a couple of billion barrels of oil.

than this would have ended years ago thanks to the guys at Control of Foreign Resources.

Originally posted by bg_socalif

And neither has the Somali central govt since Siad Barre was overthrown in '91. A govt in exile or a govt that controls one or two cities, just doesn't cut it.

Interesting point.....

So.... A nation... post COLD WAR, that doesn't have natural resources, AND once used as a pawn in the cold war battle with the USSR..

coveted by the US, at the time....

Are abandoned, shortly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall...

by the US?

Say it isn't so......







[edit on 6/16/2009 by JacKatMtn]