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Africa Horn
Piracy slows food aid for hungry Somalians — UN
2006-03-02
Piracy is a growing problem along Somalia's long coastline, slowing efforts to feed as many as 2 million Somalis left hungry by severe drought, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. Due to the threat of pirate raids on food shipped by boat, the World Food Programme (WFP) has had to move some aid overland to southern Somalia through Kenya for the first time in five years, Annan said in a report to the Security Council.

UN officials estimate that 1.5 million to 2 million people are in need of food in the northeast African nation, one of 11 countries in the region hit hard by prolonged drought. The situation is so dire there that some Somali children are drinking their own urine, international aid group Oxfam reported this month. Somalia's coastal waters have become the world's most dangerous in the 14 years the country has lacked a central government since warlords ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Posted by:Fred

#6  I'll take any sort of vessel, so long as it gets the job done, but that was certainly a tasty link, DMFD. Learn something new every day, especially at Rantburg.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-03-02 20:47  

#5  You mean a Q-Ship
Posted by: DMFD   2006-03-02 19:49  

#4  We need a more serious solution. Have an aid ship lose speed and emit smoke while intentionally listing to port. Wait for the pirates to show up, open up with 50 caliber machine gun fire, shoulder launch missiles and fast response air support to mop up whatever moves out of range fast enough. Dead pirates are nowhere near the same problem as living ones.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-03-02 16:01  

#3  Couple of FFGs assigned to escort duty ought to take care of it.
Posted by: Mike   2006-03-02 13:56  

#2  Let the UN deal with it. Our plate is full, especially with Iran coming up.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2006-03-02 13:38  

#1  I hope we don't have to "do something" again.
Posted by: anonymous2u   2006-03-02 01:58  

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