3 February 2011 – The United Nations today launched an action plan to combat piracy off the Somali coast, calling for greater support from national navies to fight a “global menace” that threatens not only international trade but the world body’s delivery of vital food aid to millions of hungry people.

We are neither proud of, nor content with, the results achieved so far,” the Secretary-General of the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO), Efthimios Mitropoulos, said at the official launch at his agency’s London headquarters on World Maritime Day.

He added that the past year alone saw 286 piracy-related incidents off the coast of Somalia, resulting in 67 hijacked ships, with 1,130 seafarers on board; while a recent study estimated the cost to the world economy from disruptions to international trade at between $7 billion and $12 billion.

One of the prime objectives of the new plan is “to promote greater levels of support from, and coordination with, navies” off Somalia, where patrols by the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and UN member states already provide “vital protection” for UN vessels delivering logistical support to the African Union force in Mogadishu, which seeks to help stabilize the war-torn country, and for UN food shipments to the 2.4 million Somalis who urgently need it.

“We were appalled by yesterday’s news that pirates had executed, apparently in cold blood, a seafarer on the Beluga Nomination, a ship which had been attacked and hijacked last month, 390 miles off the Seychelles,” Mr. Mitropoulos said. “This year, we are resolved to redouble our efforts and, in so doing, generate and galvanize a broader, global response to modern-day piracy.”

The IMO chief added that more needs to be done, including the tracing of money and the imposition of sanctions on the proceeds derived from hijacked ships, if the ultimate goal of “consigning piracy to the realms of history” is to be achieved.

Formally launching the plan, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a long-term strategy of deterrence, security, rule of law and development to fight the scourge. Somalia has not had a functioning central government for the past 20 years during which it has been torn apart by factional warfare, most recently involving Al Shabaab and other Islamist militias.

“Although piracy manifests itself at sea, the roots of the problem are to be found ashore,” Mr. Ban said. “In essence, piracy is a criminal offence that is driven by economic hardship, and that flourishes in the absence of effective law enforcement.”