IHS.Janes
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
The action plan sets down six key aims including: improving the training of seafarers to avoid boardings; applying political pressure for hostage release; and providing care for hostages and their families. However, from a military perspective, the main points of the plan are to "promote greater levels of support from, and co-ordination with, navies"; increase anti-piracy information sharing and co-operation between states and other actors; and assist states in piracy-prone areas to "deter, interdict and bring [pirates] to justice".
Although notionally a global plan, the push is implicitly focused on the Horn of Africa as the current main piracy hotspot, with particular emphasis on Somalia, and as such, the plan urges a multinational, multi-agency approach to tackle the causes of piracy there, as well as taking a firmer line for the counter-piracy patrols off the coast.
The first step towards this was endorsed in late December when the UN Security Council approved a 4,000-strong uplift to the African Union Mission for Somalia, taking the force to 12,000.
Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), said the UN is encouraging a regional response to "tackle the root causes of piracy through the provision of assistance to states for the development of their maritime law enforcement capabilities".
Source: IHS.Janes