I had some idea of the geography of Somalia (dry, sandy, low) but had never looked at Somalia in detail. I checked a map which showed the approximate location of the hijacked ship "Maersk Alabama", and went to approximately that location in Google Earth and then made a bee-line for the Somali coast. Where you are at now is a couple of hundred miles northeast of Mogadishu. For those readers who have Google earth it might be fun to open it up and follow along with what I did at this point.
The coastline is dry and pretty linear. No trees, very few natural harbors. Empty. No signs of humans or civilization and no place to hide. So I'm thinking: were the hell are these pirates coming from. After about 10 minutes of searching (moving northeast along the cost) I find a "town" that Google identifies it as "Eyl." You can see a some buildings on a small bluff over the beach and a bunch of what looks like fishing boats close to the water. A larger settlement is maybe 1/2 mile up a river.
I do a Google search on "Eyl Somolia." Bingo. Do the Google search yourself. It is described as a "Pirate city." Lots of stuff.
Here's the thing: this "city" is very small and isolated. It can't have a population of more than several thousand. There is NOTHING nearby. Empty stretches of desert in all directions. No jungle. No marshland, NOTHING.
When the media talks about piracy coming from the "lawless coast of Somalia" that's really a misstatement. It' coming from Eyl. A look at the map and a read of what's going on make that clear. I have found only one other place along this coastline that could support pirate activity. An interesting place, which I will talk about in a minute but in the mean time lets get back to Eyl.
It seems to me that a U.S. Navy ship anchored off of Eyl could stop pirate activity cold. Better yet rotate a U.S. navy vessel and navy vessels of other nations that are affected by piracy. Make it international and package it as "protection" for the fishing industry of Eyl so the residents there can save face. Observe EVERY boat leaving Eyl. Use technology. Radar, night vision, etc. etc. Somalia has no sitting government so permission is not needed. Deliver food as part of the program.
When I look at this kind of thing I really wonder about the competence of our leaders (political and military). We hear talk about "patrolling" the waters off of "Texas sized" Somalia and how difficult that could be and hear it presented as some sort of "general" problem "in the region". But it's not. It's concentrated in ONE PLACE and that place is out in the open and in the middle of nowhere.
Now back to the interesting place a bit up the coast from Eyl - at location 8 40 52 34 north, 50 21 50 30 east. What's at this location is a very small settlement with a number of small boats in and around the water at the mouth of a river and a couple of larger boats offshore. The larger boats offshore may be fishing boats. They are the only boats I have seen so far that could possibly be used as "pirate mother ships". It's possible that this location also has pirate activity and that's what they are.
A bit further up the coast at 8 53 52 95 North, 50 26 49 47 East there are a few boats on the shore but no signs of any settlement so it's unlikely you could keep hostages there.
Point is there are VERY FEW places along this coast where piracy could be sustained. Eyl is pretty much it.
So why not go to the clear SOURCE of the problem: Eyl. Why not anchor ships about 200 yards offshore. Why not find out who is running this place and start a continuing dialog with them. The pirates cannot just "meld into the countryside" because there IS no countryside - it's open flat desert in one direction and ocean in the other.
When I see things like this I typically wonder about the competence (or veracity) of the leadership involved. If I could figure this out in an hour or so why couldn't they. Why not focus attention on the problem: the city of Eyl as opposed to the amorphous and difficult "lawless coast of Somalia", which is NOT the problem. The remainder of the coast is empty!
Here are two good articles on Eyl:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/97287
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5183663.ece
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