NAIROBI (AFP) — Somali pirates dodged foreign navies and hijacked another two vessels, officials said Thursday, as international experts sought ways to secure international shipping routes.
Somali pirates hijacked two Yemeni fishing boats near the port of Aden on Wednesday, though seven fishermen managed to escape on a smaller boat, maritime officials said.
At least 17 ships are now held by Somali pirates, including an arms-laden Ukrainian cargo vessel and a Saudi-owned super-tanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil.
Addressing the conference, the UN's top envoy for Somalia called for tough measures against pirates and their backers, and urged greater international commitment to stabilising the country.
"This unprecedented rise in piracy is threatening the very freedom and safety of maritime trade routes, affecting not only Somalia and the region, but also a large percentage of world trade," said Ahmedou Ould Abdallah.
"They may have collected over 120 million dollars (91.3 million euros) for this year, with total impunity," he told 140 delegates from 45 countries, including ministers and ambassadors.
With the vital shipping lane to Europe under threat, Western powers have deployed warships but so far been outwitted by the pirates in their speedboats.
Gathered in Nairobi, representatives of governments and agencies explored ways of removing some legal obstacles to tougher anti-piracy action.
Piracy "poses an enormous challenge to the international legal system", UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, said at Wednesday's opening of the conference.
Technical experts discussed a document by the Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to encourage countries in the region to detain, transfer and prosecute pirates.
The 1.3-million-dollar programme will boost the criminal justice and law enforcement systems of Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen and Tanzania, over a six-month period to prepare them to try the pirates.
"If pirates are to be brought to justice, neighbouring states -- where legal instruments... are already in place -- must be engaged," said the document.
Britain and Kenya signed their own memorandum of understanding on piracy cooperation on the sidelines of the conference while the European Union negotiated a larger deal.
The conference closed with a final declaration containing no groundbreaking new steps but recommending more support to establish an effective Somali coastguard and study common policies on discouraging ransom payments.
The conference paved the way for a UN Security Council meeting on December 16 which will examine the situation in Somalia and during which the United States is expected to ask for more flexible rules of engagement in anti-piracy operations.
The UNODC document hinted that the government of the autonomous Somali region of Puntland had a hand in piracy, sparking the ire of the Puntland delegation which asked for the paragraph to be removed.
The European Union this week launched its first naval mission -- Operation Atalanta -- with its ships joining an existing US-led coalition, but experts argue the area is too large to cover for a few dozen naval vessels.
While all speakers stressed the importance of solving Somalia's problems ashore, some participants said there was little evidence the world was ready to stabilise the country.
"We are not seeing major changes... and everybody is failing to acknowledge the resentment that these naval missions are creating on the ground," said one diplomat.
Some participants pointed out that the cost of the EU naval force -- estimated at 250 million euros (320 million dollars) -- was four or five times the EU's annual aid budget for Somalia.
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