The United Nations security council has approved a resolution drafted by the security members to extend anti Piracy measures off Somalia for three months. The Security Council resolution welcomed the steady decline in ship hijackings off the coast of Somalia since 2011 and that there have been no successful hijackings for ransom reported since March 2017.
The body recognized “the ongoing threat that resurgent piracy and armed robbery at sea poses,” citing reports by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which continue to illustrate that piracy “has been repressed but not eradicated.”
The resolution commends the efforts of the European Union naval forces operation off Somalia, which was launched in December 2008, as well as African Union counter-piracy activities onshore in Somalia, and other naval efforts in the region, including by China, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
The bulk of the anti-piracy fight has been undertaken by Atalanta, the European operation mobilizing ships and aircraft to patrol the waters near Somalia. Created in 2008, it has been extended by the European Council until December 2022, under the Security Council’s mandate.
