Malta a ‘key node’ in confronting Somali piracy

“Although Malta is thousands of miles away from the problem itself [the coast of Somalia], if you look at the instability of the countries on the Red Sea, particularly Egypt, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, and you combine that with the fact that pirates are extending their range of operations North of Djibouti, you realise that Malta is one of the key nodes in confronting piracy,” Moynan said.

“You have a critical role to play in this problem,” he said, speaking during a Malta Anti-Piracy conference dealing with an “intelligence approach to Maritime Security”.

He welcomed Malta’s decision to set up a working group to start determining a legal framework for such regulation. “Set the standard, other nations will follow,” Moynan said, adding that their work should process “full steam ahead.”

Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi also announced Malta will be involved in a combined deployment between Maltese and Dutch military in October and is expected to last 10 weeks.

Moynan said that piracy is an ever-evolving threat with far-reaching repercussions across several areas of operation. “I'm not only talking about the economic costs, the insurance, security costs, or the additional fuel for taking longer routes round - there is also the human dimension.”

He added that the longest ship held hostage has been held for around 500 days now. “Imagine you are a Pilipino crewman rotting off the coast of Somalia for that length of time. It is not an attractive of proposition.”

“It is a real threat, it is here, and it’s got to be confronted in some way,” Moynan said, pointing to the instability within the “failed state” of Somalia and how there seems to be no inclination towards the establishment of rule of law or authority.

He maintained that due to these conditions, piracy will very likely remain a problem for the next five years at least.

He added that this is compounded by how the West will not place a force in Somalia despite this being “the only thing that will really eradicate piracy.”

Referring to naval forces deployed around the Somali coast, he described these as “better but there is still room for improvement,” pointing out that according to an officer within the UK’s Royal Navy, Somali piracy does not represent a big enough threat to be neutralised properly.

“It is a nuisance to the UK, but it is not an existential threat,” Moynan said, quoting the Royal Navy officer.

This meant the burden of response and responsibility now fell on private security companies. “We have seen greater use of motherships which extend their range throughout the Indian Ocean. We have seen a greater willingness to use violence – there is a new breed of pirate there. And I suspect they will use technology yin the same way that we do.”

He also spoke about the need of greater regulation for maritime security companies so that “cowboy companies” can be regulated and kept apart from more serious and professional security companies in operation.

In this regard, he described the US regulation as very lax and UK’s regulatory framework structure as “woolly”.

Geoff Moynan has 30 years of experience within the British Army and has served as defence attaché to Kuwait and equipped with experience in Middle East in military and commercial environment.

He is currently Director of Security with Maritime and Underwater Security Consultants, based in UAE focussed primarily on business development Oil and Gas sector in southern Iraq, Kuwait and UAE.