How To Combat Modern Somali Piracy - Pirate Hunting - Somali Pirate Documentary

[Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] my chemical tanker bow cecil is on its way through the suez canal on its journey to singapore you know what is this yeah i think it's some suits safety suits or something yeah it's a bullet proof in the spring of 2009 its sister ship was hijacked off the somalia coast an event which still haunts the crew on the bow cecil thank you for that has been at sea for more than 30 years but this kind of equipment is a first even to this veteran the sea route through the suez canal and the gulf of aden is one of the major transport highways of the seas each month more than 2 000 vessels use this important trading route between asia and europe it is in these waters that the somali pirates are wreaking havoc the captain of the bow cecil summons his crew to a general meeting to inform and advise about their dangerous journey welcome to this uh general meeting if we get attacked we will zone the alarm and if the parochial ball i don't think it will help anybody to try us sylvester stallone or something like that twenty-year-old nancy is the only woman among the twenty-seven crew members i felt mainly my australia israel foreign at the same time the norwegian warship fritz of nansen has also arrived in the red sea on its way to join the recently established eu task force to combat piracy operation atalanta dutchman peter bent has the overall command of the 12 warships assigned to patrol and protect a sea area larger than the entire united states if somalia slides off further also by piracy that is a security risk for the whole world 80 percent uh of trade of goods and energy uh is is transported overseas so it is uh it is vital for everyone uh that we've that we fight as friends [Music] the fritz of nansen is among the newest and most sophisticated ships in the task force for this occasion it's been equipped with prison barracks robotic machine guns and super fast speed boats operated by norway's navy seals [Music] [Music] foreign foreign today she and the rest of the crew will have their first taste of the realities of pirate hunting superman [Music] um [Music] foreign again um [Music] the city of odessa ukraine [Applause] from this black seaport cargo vessel faina set out to see in september 2008 on its way to kenya and sudan [Music] nutrition [Music] for the first time sergey and his friends talk about their ordeal after they were hijacked by pirates in the gulf of aden an event which triggered the western naval offensive against the pirates on september 25th 2008 the fiena enters the gulf of aden carrying an ominous cargo driver thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is there any suspicious activity in your area please contact nearest coalition worship or coalition aircraft on channel one we are monitoring pregnancy and standing [Music] the crew has started their final preparations before crossing the dangerous gulf of aden [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] in addition to the barbed wire and the floating ropes the captain has decided to extend hoses with boiling hot steam along the sides the ship will be turned into a floating fortress first foreign [Applause] manila [Music] b [Music] ali arif is only 29 years old and already the commander of a group of 20 pirates piracy has made him a rich man here in ale the city that has been called the pirate capital of somalia off the beach lies ali's latest bounty a filipino ship that he soon hopes will bring ransom on [Music] the sea outside of ale used to be filled with tuna fish lobster and shrimp then the foreigners arrived with modern fishing ships trawling the reefs bear of life with their livelihood gone the population here had no other choice but to turn to piracy according to somali human rights advocate mohammed waldo it's merely a desperate response of a desperate people of death spread fishermen of desperate community it's a desperate response [Music] in the gulf of aden the warship fritsch of nansen has been assigned to escort the bow cecil for a few miles [Music] foreign foreign foreign the ukrainian cargo vessel faina barely managed to send a mayday signal before the pirates were on board in just minutes the 17 frightened sailors were captured and forced into a tiny cabin of just 12 square meters still while the pirates went through the boat in search of valuables sailor sergey sarancha managed to hide his mobile phone apart from these are his own video images of their captivity which was to last for four full months [Music] meanwhile an american warship arrives to monitor the situation [Music] as the weeks go by the crew realizes that their shipping company in odessa is not going to pay the ransom anytime soon in the tiny cabin people are starting to get on each other's nerves in the gulf of aden the weather is gradually improving making the conditions ideal for small pirate skits a surveillance plane has spotted a suspicious boat the nonsen gets the assignment despite the amount of guns and pirate equipment found eu procedures do not permit the crew of the nansen to interrogate the suspects there is no law against carrying guns in international waters and the evidence might not secure a conviction in kenya the country designated to prosecute the suspects in a court of law hesitatingly the norwegian commander finally decides to let the pirates go before they're set free the pirates get a serving of sandwiches water and halal chicken but then something happens the pirates apparently don't want to leave [Music] foreign um [Music] the news of the military's latest pirate encounter has struck like a bombshell for somalia foreign [Music] foreign [Music] a few pirates still end up in the custody of the western navies usually in the cases where they're caught during an actual hijack attempt the crew on this pirate mothership has just been arrested by u.s marines the suspects are transported to the warships hangar for processing from there they're taken to kenya to face trial [Music] the kenyans however are anything but overjoyed at accepting these prisoners we only accept what we are able to uh to handle in other words we bite what we can chew at the moment more than 100 somali pirates await their trials in kenyan jails as part of a deal that even the country's members of parliament know nothing about we have raised in parliament wanting to know the details of this agreement which is treated a top secret between the united states of america and certain nations of the european union to provide facilities in kenya for the holding of the the suspect the un has allocated some four million dollars a year to help the kenyan justice system cope with the large number of piracy cases but the public defenders who represent the pirates still haven't seen any of this money where are the facilities where the france i'm representing about 32 pirates of the total of about 120 30 who are already here and in none of the files have i been given in the name we have fairly functional institutions and they are being exploited by the western nations who they are not themselves take these people into their own countries so far only a handful of pirates has been convicted in kenya the whole arrangement casts doubts about the western nation's seriousness in wanting to combat the somali pirates according to writer loretta napoleoni why taking them to kenya i mean why not somewhere else this is the typical shortcut solution governments in the west really like i don't want to deal with this problem therefore you know i just you know do the minimum at huge cost for the taxpayer [Music] chemical tanker bow cecil is halfway through the gulf of eden when an alert lookout spots something suspicious foreign [Music] in position 1 3 degrees made to worship this is bao cecil lima alphago in four five five trevor i know i have to worship and i'm sorry roger i'm closing to your position [Music] the past year has seen a tremendous surge in piracy off the coast of somalia here in london the piracy has created a whole new industry we have a new industry of insurance companies security companies that ensure and protect cargos it's a big business as terrorism has become a big business if we look at you know ransom payments a sort of conservative estimate for 2008 around 50 million uh you can travel that probably to work out the full cost of piracy in terms of you know your lawyer's fees your extra pay to your crew and so on increase insurance premiums and all these additional costs filter down to the likes of you and me i think as consumers as shipping gets more expensive paula gate in the company swinglehurst is one of the very few insurance executives who agrees to be interviewed about piracy insurance tailor-made for the situation in the gulf of aden you know for insurance costings it would be paying about maybe ten fifteen thousand dollars okay to transit we were certainly the pioneers in the market and uh we received um literally tens dozens of inquiries so the christmas card list scott uh suddenly you know it went from let's say uh you know tenfold increase some analysts believe it's problematic that too many people now are starting to make big money from the threat of piracy i don't think that the world population is really interested in stopping the robber of piracy because they do not understand what the problem is about here in somalia they think the problem is that foreigners have taken all their fish reserves foreign [Music] a fisherman tried to stop this illegal fishing it's going on in a big way now under the eyes and nose and infecting the protection of the navies pirate chief ali arif recalls the day when he and his father met a large fleet of foreign trawlers [Music] foreign [Music] ali's father disappeared in the sea that day the choices available to me of being killed by a warlord being killed by poverty and hunger and being killed by american bullet i rather the american bullet and with the chance of winning also something sometimes [Music] the bow cecil is still being pursued by a possible pirate boat the warships which are here to protect merchant shipping have failed to answer their distress calls not [Music] uh now this is motor tanker bow csl [Music] yes we have spotted a little bit suspicious target on our starboard side and now it is heading forward so that's cool foreign [Music] my meanwhile the warship fritz of nansen also receives a dramatic distress call an italian freighter has come under attack a few miles away pirates have opened fire to force it to stop [Music] they will come [Music] bye southern cross this is european warship how are things going with you over let's go ahead please european we just see you we just see you on our port side foreign [Music] 100 days have passed since the faina was hijacked for christmas the pirates give their hostages a bottle of whiskey to share among themselves and this is how they celebrate new year's eve 2008. [Music] the pirates have demanded a ransom of 25 million dollars an amount nobody wants to pay london lawyer stephen askins is hired to negotiate the most difficult case that we've been involved in was was the fina you're dealing with irrational people it's not like a standard commercial negotiation where you expect someone to start off very high and you start off very low and you perhaps meet in the middle there are no real rules to it the negotiations are at a standstill one day the somalians come to the cabin and order the sailors out on deck [Music] back in the ukraine the pirates get the reactions thereafter um due to the persistent rumors that the ukrainian authorities are planning a spectacular rescue operation the mothers of the hostages decide to start negotiating with the pirates themselves vetlana um galadze is put in contact with the pirate commander on board the fyina he calls himself mohammed [Music] [Music] diet [Music] on the bridge of the bow cecil they still haven't heard any news about the suspicious boat which the nato warship had promised to checkout if you have any information about this this fishing boat we reported earlier today yes sir that contact has been recognized like a transporter though he was carrying gold [Music] can you please repeat once again he was transporting something transporting gold [Music] so [Music] led by a helicopter from the dutch flagship the fritjof nonsen has set full speed southeast in pursuit of the men who attacked the italian cargo vessel from with a head start of just 10 nautical miles the chances of finding the culprits are good the prison barracks are prepared for possible guests the crew has already received information about the attack on the italian ship and the navy's up to now futile hunt for the pirates helicopter [Music] [Music] also [Music] [Music] ship owners sailors and insurance companies no longer believe that the military can solve the piracy problem on their own what we're doing what what i think the um you know the european you know naval forces are doing is is a short term you know fix is a band-aid british security company heart is one of the many which openly advertise their armed services to ship owners with the added value of huge discounts on insurance premiums heart provides an armed approach to protection we are quite expensive and it ranges from about 120 to 180 000 pounds roughly and it depends on the type of vessel how long because the quicker the faster the vessel goes the less time it needs our services on board but a general rule of thumb is that we are going to be about twice that of that of a of an unarmed approach here in the mountains of northern italy the security company sig is arranging a selection course for future sea marshals the chief instructor is a former mercenary with extensive experience from work in africa some of these guys that we have on this course will go down there are willing to go down there and uh we need to prepare them for what they're going to meet i think that it's just three four guys on this course that is really up for it to to go out foreign weapons training is an important part of the course and here is some of the arsenal this company offers its clients i'm fire then i can focus private security contractors like tour guy or frixion think the international naval forces have lost their credibility because they're reacting too timidly against the pirates his message to future clients is this yeah it will be worse and definitely there's no doubt about that i think personally a more brutal coalition force that's the only thing that could stop this some security companies are now running their own private fleets of armed patrol boats outside of somalia there is a fear that this trend will inevitably lead to an escalation also from the pirates a pirate was telling me you know they do have weapons that can sink most of the vessels on the sea but they have been reluctant to do it but if the back is put against the wall i don't know what they are able to do or what they are likely to do in february 2009 a ukrainian billionaire announced that he would pay the ransom for the crew of the fyena 134 days after the hijacking two boxes containing more than three million dollars in cash are parachuted onto the vessel's deck [Music] previously [Music] a few hours later the pirates and the money are gone the u.s navy moves in with much needed food and medical supplies [Music] [Music] foreign what kind of problems would it create for your company if the piracy of somalia were to disappear overnight yeah yeah i mean obviously it'd be sad in some ways because you know we as i said earlier we've probably enhanced our earnings you know by let's say 30 35 this year [Music] after one week on patrol many of the crew members on board the warship fritz of nonsen have a new impression of the pirates they have come to fight is [Music] the crew on the chemical tanker bow cecil can finally take a break after a 30-hour nerve-wracking passage through the gulf of aden a fence the sailors on the merchant ship continue their voyage with mixed feelings about the military and their effort to fight the pirates i miss the hell through upon [Music] almost 30 navy ships from at least 16 countries are now attempting to protect merchant vessels from the somali pirates and yet the number of pirate attacks continues to increase the cost of you know keeping this kind of ships at sea is astronomical so we have to reinvent recreate a new way of fighting piracy we've seen how pirates are often fed and set free despite having clear intentions of attacking ships because of the underlying legal dilemmas facing the multinational naval forces it's more political and publicity than actually doing the job it's not cost effective it's not productive it's not working the overall solution is on land what we do is see at sea is definitely necessary but the solution is in a stable somalia one thing both the critics and the pirate hunters share is an understanding that before the sailors of the world's merchant fleets can ever start to feel safer the international community must do something about the conditions in war-torn somalia meanwhile pirates of somalia are thriving from the ever-increasing ransoms paid by ship owners on the beaches of pirate capital ale ali arif is even considering raising the foreign [Music] foreign [Music] you

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Keywords: I love docs, i love documentaries, documentary film, free documentaries, documentaries on youtube, syndicado, documentaries online, full documentary, award winning documentary, watch documentaries, best documentary, pirate hunting somalia, somali pirates, somali pirate, somalia, pirate hunt, pirate hunting, somali documentary, somali pirates attack, how to combat modern somali piracy, somali pirates documentary, somalian pirate, pirates documentary

Id: Sf1fk8Y1a_0

Length: 58min 10sec (3490 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

This is from 2009, I couldn't find anything in the documentary giving that date for some reason. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention.

[u/[deleted]]

So when the navy catches these pirates. They seize their weapons, give them water and halal food, point them in the right direction to get home and set the free ?

Sounds like some limp wristed bureaucratic made that policy.

Give the crew a raise, a dozen m240 mounts around each ship and teach them how to use it. Problem fn solved.