403 Fernando Ibáñez Gómez Maritime Insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea:... 2. EXPLANATORY FACTORS UNDERLYING THE REDUCTION OF ATTACKS AND HIJACKINGS BY SOMALI PIRATES The causes underlying the almost total disappearance of incidents of piracy in the Western Indian Ocean are many. In this article we shall be centring our focus on the four issues which in our view have the greatest bearing. 2.1. Greater effectiveness and forcefulness from international military presence Since 2008 three international military missions have been deployed, led by the European Union (operation EUNAVFOR-Atalanta), NATO (currently under Operation Ocean Shield) and the multinational Combined Task Force 151. Back then, pirate attacks were being carried out very successfully, particularly in the Gulf of Aden. It is estimated that some 23,000 vessels annually transit this important maritime route that connects the Indian Ocean with Europe and America via the Suez Canal. Hence the decision to put in place a security corridor; a sort of two-way waterway. Military units are strategically deployed within this corridor so as to provide an escort to commercial ships passing through the Gulf. Maritime patrol aircraft, frigates and even submarines are included among the units sent by various countries to protect navigation. Nevertheless, this naval presence did not frighten off the pirates. In the following years, attacks and hijackings continued; both in the Gulf of Aden and within the security corridor3. The existence of various military missions deployed for the same purpose initially gave rise to certain problems of coordination, to the extent that some countries even had a military presence in more than one mission. It would appear that there were political reasons behind these decisions, which are difficult to explain from a merely operative standpoint. We would have to wait a further three years, until 2012, when there were no hijackings carried out in the security corridor. The following figure pinpoints the 3 IBÁÑEZ, Fernando y ESTEBAN, Miguel Ángel. “Analysis of the Somali pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean (2005-2011): evolution and modus operandi”, Ministry of Defence, Journal of the Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos, nº 1, June 2013, p.15: http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee/ article/download/36/33
REVISTA IEEE 4
To see the actual publication please follow the link above