Day: August 9, 2021

Despite an overall decrease in maritime traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic, piracy and armed robbery of ships rose by nearly 20 per cent during the first half of last year, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Monday.

Addressing a high-level debate on enhancing security for seafarers, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, the UN Secretary-General’s Chef de Cabinet, highlighted the need for stronger international cooperation.

Incidents in Asia have nearly doubled, while West Africa, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, and the South China Sea, were the most affected areas, she said.

The “unprecedented” levels of insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea, and more recently in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, were also particularly concerning.

Growing interlinked threats

“Maritime insecurity is also compounding the terrorist threat emerging from the Sahel,” Ms. Viotti told ambassadors.

“These growing and interlinked threats call for a truly global and integrated response. A response that addresses these challenges directly as well as their root causes – including poverty, a lack of alternative livelihoods, insecurity, and weak governance structures.”

Maritime security is also being undermined by challenges around contested boundaries and navigation routes, and depletion of natural resources through illegal or unreported fishing, Ms. Viotti added.

She said the meeting, held via videoconference, was a chance to further advance global action on a vital but complex issue as all countries are affected, whether they are coastal or landlocked.

‘Shared global commons’

The open debate was organized by India, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month.

For the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, oceans are “our shared global commons” and the “lifeline” of international trade. The UN estimates that more than three billion people worldwide, mainly in developing countries, depend on the ocean for their livelihood and well-being.

“However, today this common maritime heritage of ours faces various types of threats,” said Mr. Modi. “Maritime routes are being misused for piracy and terrorism. There are maritime disputes between several countries. And climate change and natural disasters are also challenges to the maritime domain.”

From commitment to action

Ms. Viotti highlighted legal instruments that uphold maritime security, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“But this framework is only as strong as countries’ commitment to full and effective implementation,” she stressed. “We need to translate commitment into action.”

The UN has welcomed moves by the international community to strengthen cooperation on maritime security. The Organization also supports regional initiatives, including to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia and to try and cut down on the armed robbery of ships in Asia.

Global programme afloat

Ghada Waly, Executive Director at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that a 2009 programme, initially established to address the Somali piracy threat, is now its largest initiative, with a budget that has grown from $300,000 to over $230 million.

The Global Maritime Crime Programme encompasses some 170 personnel based in 26 countries who provide capacity building and support for legal reform, simulated trials and maritime training centres.

“Yet, the challenges to maritime security continue to grow, and our responses must keep up,” said Ms. Waly.

The UN agency chief encouraged the Security Council to take action towards implementing the related legal framework, building capabilities, expanding partnerships and promoting crime prevention response. She underscored the need to reduce vulnerabilities.

“Pirates, criminals, and terrorists exploit poverty and desperation to seek recruits, gain support, and find shelter. To counter these threats, we need to raise awareness and educate people, especially youth, while providing alternative livelihoods and support for local businesses,” said Ms. Waly.

Source: UN News Center

Somalia’s First Lady Saynab Abdi Moallim lauded the Qatari support for the Somali people, which are extended to implement developmental projects and alleviate the suffering of the vulnerable in times of adversities.

This came in a speech Moallim delivered during the inaugural ceremony of the health centre built by Qatar Charity (QC) in the Galmudug State of Somalia, where she expressed her gratitude for the immediate response of QC to this centre.

It is considered to be an integrated hospital for the people in the area, noting the donations of philanthropists in Qatar for implementing developmental projects in several fields.

Ali Dahir Eid, Vice President of Galmudug, said QC plays a well-known and appreciated role in supporting the Somali people in various fields, especially in the health sector, as the people need support in this sector due to the difficult humanitarian conditions over the past two decades.

Abdiweli Abdullahi Jama, Minister of Health of the Galmudug state, indicated that his ministry has been searching for a donor over the past few months to deliver health services to more than 38% of the state’s population who lack healthcare facilities.

He emphasised that this centre built by QC will contribute to lessening the burdens on the Ministry in terms of providing high-quality health services to the residents of Hobyo City and surrounding areas.

He added that this is the third centre constructed by QC in the cities of the state, noting that two centres were already built in the cities of Galkayo and Abud Wak.

Dr Abdullah Abdul-Qader Rafi, a doctor at the centre, explained that this centre would reduce the risks that residents were exposed to due to the absence of a health centre in the city.

He noted that the nearest health centre was about 256 kilometers from the city, which exposes patients and pregnant women to dangers due to its proximity, rugged roads, and lack of facilities.

The centre includes a reproductive health department, an emergency department, a laboratory, a vaccination room, a feeding room, a pharmacy, in addition to doctors’ rooms and administrative offices.

The centre is expected to provide integrated health services, such as first aid for emergency cases, maternal and child care, feeding and vaccination services for children and pregnant women, health awareness and education, medicines, and treatment.

Nearly 20,000 people from the city and its neighboring areas benefit from the services of the centre.

Source: Somali National News Agency

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, thank you very much, Foreign Minister Jaishankar. It’s wonderful to be with you and please convey our thanks to Prime Minister Modi for bringing us together for this critically important discussion and for India’s leadership on these issues, especially in championing a free and open Indo-Pacific.

When I last had the chance to address the Council back in May, it was to underscore the importance of defending, upholding, and revitalizing the rules-based international order grounded in the United Nations Charter. Few issues are more crucial to that endeavor than the future of our ocean. The ocean not only covers 70 percent of Earth and accounts for 97 percent of its water, but it is crucial to the livelihood of our people and the sustainability of our planet. Maritime safety and security are enduring interests of all nations and are vital natural (inaudible).

(Interruption.)

Thank you. Freedom of navigation and overflight and the unimpeded flow of lawful maritime commerce are also critical to the security and prosperity of nations and to global stability. The international community has long benefited from a rules-based maritime order where international law, as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, sets out the legal framework for all activities in the ocean and seas.

But despite having a clear body of international law that we’ve all committed to abide by and uphold, despite all the ways that freedom of the seas, open waterways, and the unimpeded flow of lawful maritime commerce have delivered for nations and people around the world, and despite the indispensable role this maritime order has played in fostering economic activity, security cooperation, scientific innovation, environmental sustainability – despite all of that, the order is under serious threat.

That’s why I’m grateful for India’s leadership in bringing us together today and calling on all nations to recommit to defending and strengthening the maritime rules and principles that we forged together and committed to uphold.

Let me just speak, if I could, specifically to some of the critical areas where we see maritime rules and principles under threat.

In the South China Sea, we have seen dangerous encounters between vessels at sea and provocative actions to advance unlawful maritime claims. The United States has made clear its concerns regarding actions that intimidate and bully other states from lawfully accessing their maritime resources. And we and other countries, including South China Sea claimants, have protested such behavior and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea.

Five years ago, an arbitral tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention delivered a unanimous and legally binding decision to the parties before it firmly rejecting unlawful, expansive South China Sea maritime claims as being inconsistent with international law. The United States has consistently called for all countries to conform their maritime claims to the International Law of the Sea as reflected in the 1982 convention.

This is in keeping with the peaceful resolution of disputes and the sovereign equality of member-states, which are core principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter. Efforts to resolve maritime disputes through threat or use of force flout these principles.

Some may assert that resolving the dispute in the South China Sea is not the business of the United States or any other country that is not a claimant to the islands and waters. But it is the business and, even more, the responsibility of every member-state to defend the rules that we’ve all agreed to follow and peacefully resolve maritime disputes. Conflict in the South China Sea or in any ocean would have serious global consequences for security and for commerce. What’s more, when a state faces no consequences for ignoring these rules, it fuels greater impunity and instability everywhere.

States are also provocatively and unlawfully advancing their interests in the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea. On July 29th, the Mercer Street, a commercial ship that was peacefully transiting international waters in the North Arabian Sea, was attacked using explosive unmanned aerial vehicles, resulting in the death of two people. Upon review of the available information, we are confident that Iran conducted this unjustified attack, which is part of a pattern of attacks and other provocative behavior. These actions threaten freedom of navigation through this crucial waterway, international shipping and commerce, and the lives of people on the vessels involved.

On behalf of the United States, I reiterate my condolences to the families of the victims and to the United Kingdom and Romania. It is on all of our nations to hold accountable those responsible. Failing to do so will only fuel their sense of impunity and embolden others inclined to disregard the maritime order.

In the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov, we see continued aggressive actions against Ukraine with dangerous incursions on the sea and in the air and the harassment of vessels, which are disrupting commerce and energy access. We reaffirm our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters. Crimea is Ukraine.

When nations ignore or purport to redraw the borders of other nations, whether by land or by sea, they undermine the sovereign equality of member-states, a guiding principle of the United Nations.

Non-state actors also pose serious risk to maritime safety and security, from pirates and illicit maritime traffickers in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, to pirates and armed robbers in the Gulf of Guinea, to drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific. Yet our collective response to these actors shows how effective we can be when we work together to defend maritime order and hold those accountable who violate it.

We see that in the Africa-led Yaounde Architecture for Maritime Safety and Security, which was supported by Friends of the Gulf of Guinea, and in the Nigerian-led Deep Blue Project and Maritime Collaborative Forum. We see it in India’s Maritime Fusion Center, which has enhanced cooperation among Indian Ocean partners, and in the widespread ratification by countries of the Caribbean Basin of the Treaty of San Jose.

We see it in the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which has demonstrated significant success in building an effective regional response, most notably in law enforcement. The United States led the creation of this group and we remain active in its work and in coordinating naval operations to prevent a resurgence of piracy in the area. We’re grateful to fellow Security Council members for supporting annual resolutions to help coordinate and strengthen these efforts.

We must bring the same coordinated and comprehensive responses to other threats to maritime safety and security. This includes illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, which undermines the sustainability of fish stocks, circumvents agreed conservation and management measures, and violate the sovereign rights of coastal states, and often goes hand in hand with the use of forced labor and other illicit activities. And it also includes responding to environmental disasters, like the cooperation between Sri Lanka, the United States, and other countries to mitigate the impact of the MV X-Press Pearl catastrophe.

All of these activities require that we share information and coordinate our responses, that we help build the capacity of our maritime partners, that we engage with affected communities, industry, nongovernmental organizations, which are critically important allies in this effort.

Together, our nations have spent decades building this maritime order and the broader rules-based international system that it is a part of. We’ve done so out of a shared recognition that it benefits all our nations and all our people when governments accept certain constraints on their actions rather than living in a world where the strong do what they can and where those who are less powerful feel coerced and threatened.

That’s never been more true than it is today, and that makes the collective effort to defend, to strengthen, and build upon this order more urgent than ever. Thanks very much.

Source: U.S DEPARTMENT of STATE

KISMAYO, Somalia, The Police component of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has concluded a five day training of trainers (ToT) course, for 15 Jubaland Police officers in Kismayo, Jubaland State of Somalia, to empower the police to effectively secure the ongoing elections.

During the training, the participants were taken through election security management, election guidelines, rules and responsibilities of security forces in elections, guidelines for security arrangement for women, the election legal framework, election violence and conflict, and maintenance of public order and crowd control.

It is expected that the participants will be able to transfer the knowledge and skills gained during the training onto their jobs.

Lead trainer Superintendent, Edward Kebbie Sesay of AMISOM Police, said the training equipped the Somali police with skills that will help them execute their duties professionally.

“The course is designed to equip the Somali Police Force, station commanders with the requisite skills, knowledge, attitude to efficiently manage and transfer skills, knowledge and attitude,” Spt. Kebbie said.

Present at the closing ceremony was the Jubaland Police Commander, Gen. Mohamed Abdi Sheikh.

The AMISOM Police Coordinating Officer in Jubaland, Chief Superintendent (CSP) Awe Oladipupo explained that the objective of the training was to mentor the police so that they acquire the necessary skills to manage the security of the elections.

“The purpose and the objective of this five day course is to equip the Jubaland Police Force with knowledge, skill and understanding in handling the management of elections, before, during and after the national elections,” CSP Oladipupo added.

Colonel Jama Ahmed Hassan, the Spokesman of the Jubaland Police Force said the skills gained by the officers will be useful in creating a peaceful atmosphere during the elections, which is crucial for the success of the electoral process.

“The training was beneficial as it focused on how the police will keep law and order especially during this period where Somalia is holding elections for the Senate and House of the People,” Col. Jama explained.

He added, “The training has prepared the officers on how to enforce security, order, protocol and the procedures of the elections. The five day workshop concluded well and we hope the participants will make use of the training, to serve the people and pass the skills they gained to their colleagues.”

Ibyan Gure Mohamud, one of the Jubaland Police officers who participated in the training, said she benefited immensely from the training, especially with regard to election security management.

“We have gained a lot of knowledge on how to conduct security measures during election period and how to effectively maintain social distance to avoid spread of Covid 19 and maintenance of public order and crowd control techniques” said Ibyan.

AMISOM and the Somali Police Force are tasked with securing the ongoing elections in Somalia, with the Somali Police taking the lead, while AMISOM Police plays a supporting role.

Source: Somali National News Agency