Somalia Piracy

The African high seas are becoming dominated by foreign navies because of the piracy. The oceans and the seas that are attacked by the pirates have war ships from the United States, other NATO members, Russia, and India. The countries prone to piracy are Somalia, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, as well as Yemen on the other side of the Gulf of Aden. Also the landlocked African countries are affected, because the supplies take a long time to arrive. The consumers are harmed because of the high insurance premiums.In my opinion Egypt should take more firm decisions about this case, and must be the first country to defend this route from piracy, because the Egyptian economy depends on the Suez Canal as one of it's main financial sources. As By 1955 approximately two-thirds of Europe's oil passed through the canal. About 7.5% of world sea trade is carried via the canal today. Receipts from the canal July 2005 to May 2006 totaled $3.246 billion. In 2007, 18,193 vessels passed through the canal. Average per-ship cost is roughly $150,000.00, and on 30 December 2007 it was announced that Egypt will increase Suez Canal transit fees by an average of 7.1% in 2008.

CNSnews, Friday,November21,2008
by Stephen Mbogo