Hiiraan Online
Sunday, September 27, 2015
MOMBASA (HOL) ---Dozens of jailed Somali pirates are languishing in an infamous prison in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa with Somali officials including Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya who spent the Eid festival celebrations with pirates in the jail witnessed a grim personal and appalling life conditions inside the detention centre.
The Shimo la Tewa maximum security prison holds more than 100 Somalis convicted of piracy activities who were jailed after being captured in the middle of piracy activities in the high seas.
Feeling frustrated, Somali officials who visited the prison have given out clothes and other necessities to the prisoners who urged Somali officials to help them to secure a prison transfer to Somalia where they would serve their jail terms.
During the visit, Somali officials have expressed disappointment at unpleasant life conditions in the prison, assuring inmates they would spare no efforts to get a prison transfer for them.
“We shall sort out your situation very soon.” Jamal Mohamed, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya told the prisoners.
Somali pirates have once terrorised the Indian Ocean, seizing ships every month and secured hundreds millions for ransom, until the European Union sent an anti-piracy force that ended the boundless piracy attacks in high seas.
Hundreds of pirates were arrested and now serving long jail terms in different countries and in prisons in the northern Somalia semiautonomous region of Puntland and the neighbouring breakaway region of Somaliland.
The EU naval forces have largely brought the piracy to an end, however, experts warned that a new wave of illegal fishing by large trawlers may help the return of piracy to the Indian Ocean.
A recent report by Secure Fisheries, a part of the One Earth Future Foundation campaign group, warned those advances could be reversed if illegal fishing is not stemmed.