Is ransom to Somali pirates funding terror groups?

Piracy off the coast of lawless Somalia represents one of the most serious recent threats to global shipping in recent times. Piracy in the Malacca Straits has faded away thanks to persistent anti-piracy patrols by regional navies like those of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Off the Horn of Africa, however, no regional navy exists to deter the pirates. There have been 73 attacks on merchant ships this year in the Gulf of Aden and nearly 30 merchant ships have been held for ransom. This includes the Japanese-owned MV Stolt Valor with a crew which includes 18 Indian personnel.A shipping agent calls piracy pure business-the pirates simply want the money. Sure enough, shipping companies prefer to pay up ransom amounts ranging from $1 million to $5 million for the safe release of the ship, crew and cargo. Experts estimate the hijacking business off Somalia's coast to be worth $ 100 million annually. Trouble is, now the Islamic militants in the shattered country too seem to have sniffed the greenbacks and are closing in. Some recent foreign media reports suggest that the Al Shabab group received a five per cent cut of a $1.5 million paid out for a Spanish ship released some months ago. Now, the Al-Shabab which means 'the youth' in Arabic is no local Somali YMCA. The US state department has designated as a 'foreign terrorist organization. The group includes fighters who splintered away from the Islamics Court Union (ICU), a Taliban-esque grouping of Sharia courts. The ICU was defeated and scattered after a US-backed invasion of Somalia by the Ethiopian army which ended in the battle of Kismayo last December. Al-Shabab is also believed to be shielding the attackers behind the 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It has also reportedly been asking the pirates for some of the heavy weapons from the Ukranian arms freighter 'Faina' now ringed by US warships as it lies captured by pirates off the coast of eastern Somalia. Much like the business groups who paid the ULFA ransom money in the Indian state of Assam in the 1990s, were indirectly funding terror attacks, the world shipping community could well be funding a greater threat to world peace than just pirates in speedboats. Perhaps it is time for the international community to once again move into the nation which it abandoned over a decade ago.