Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management

Somalia…..the perfect storm! July 20, 2011

For the number one failed state in the world, things just got a whole lot worse.  According to Mark Bowden, the U.N.’s top official in charge of humanitarian aid to Somalia, “the U.N. needs $300 million in humanitarian aid in Somalia over the next two months.”

The last time conditions were this bad was in 1992, when hundreds of thousands of Somalis starved to death. That famine prompted intervention by an international peacekeeping force, but it eventually pulled out after two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 1993.

This problem, along with all the other problems the entire region is facing, will provide an abundant supply of Somali men who will resort to piracy as a means to an end.  The weak, U.N.-backed Somali government regularly comes last in the world in the annual corruption rating by watchdog Transparency International. With ransoms for pirated vessels reaching record levels, attacks occurring during monsoon season, and pirate groups operating further out at sea and with greater sophistication; the commercial shipping industry must take pro active steps to protect its interests when operating in the region.