To end a spate of hijackings, Somalia is offering amnesty to young pirates—and pirate kingpins may be next. Jay Bahadur reports from Nairobi
Somalia’s federal government is offering amnesty to junior pirates in an attempt to end the hijackings of merchant vessels that have plagued international shipping lanes off the coast of the East African nation, according to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Although the amnesty offer supposedly does not extend to top pirate bosses, The Daily Beast has learned that two pirate leaders—including Mohamed Abdi Hassan Afweyne, one of the founding fathers of Somali piracy—met with Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon in early February to discuss amnesty conditions. Afweyne is one of three pirate bosses whose assets the U.S. Treasury has targeted for freezing.
“Somalia has been plagued by piracy for many years now and these criminals have badly affected global shipping. Piracy has to end,” said President Mohamud in a press statement on February 28.
Somali elders were mediating ongoing talks with pirates, the president said, in the hope of reaching a lasting deal to rehabilitate the young men involved, while at the same time holding the top leaders to account.
“We must emphasize that this is just a partial amnesty and does not apply to the pirate kingpins, who take most of the money,” he said.
The President added that the negotiations were still at an early stage and details of the amnesty program had not been finalized.
The closed-door meeting between the pirates and Prime Minister Shirdon—which took place the second week of February— was brokered by Mohamed Abdullahi Tiiceey, president of the self-declared autonomous region of Himan and Heeb, a recruiting ground for many of Somalia’s pirates.
Tiiceey and Somali Minister of the Interior Abdikarim Hussein Guled were also present, as well as Afweyne and fellow pirate kingpin Mohamed Garfaanje.
Afweyne and Garfaanje were even granted special permits to carry their firearms in the city, according to a source close to the men.
Garfaanje, a pirate responsible for at least six high profile hijackings, once commanded a militia, hundreds strong and armed with 80 heavy machine guns and six flatbed 4x4s, according to The New York Times.
Mohamed Abdi Hassan, known by the sobriquet “Afweyne” (“Big Mouth”), was a civil servant from the central coastal town of Harardheere before he founded the infamous Somali Marines, a pioneering pirate organization that exceeded all others in sophistication and operational success.
In 2005, the Somali Marines began hijacking World Food Programme (WFP) transports carrying aid into Somalia, seizing the MV Semlow and her 850-ton rice cargo in June of that year.
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