New Kenya Centre for Pirate Protection
by Reuters on 6 May 2006
Pirate Seas near Kenya SW
In what is great news for long range cruising sailors, Kenya opened a new maritime rescue centre on Friday to provide a rapid response to sea accidents and piracy in the Indian Ocean, particularly in the perilous waters off anarchic Somalia.
The Regional Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre, based in Mombasa and the first of its kind in Africa, will detect distress signals much faster through sophisticated communication equipment, such as satellites, than is currently used by regional port authorities.
'The centre will be very useful in detecting maritime disasters in east Africa and combating piracy along the Somali waters,' Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based Seafarers Assistance Programme told Reuters by telephone.
Somalia's waters have become among the world's most dangerous since warlords ousted former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The interim government has asked the United States to help patrol the coast to curb growing piracy.
The International Maritime Organisation, which has provided training and technical support for the centre, has recorded around 43 ship seizures in Somalia's waters since 2005, its Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulos said.
'(Piracy) is an issue that has become a matter of great concern because of the increasing number of attacks against ships sailing off the coast of Somalia,' Mitropoulos told Reuters late on Thursday.
'Unfortunately it's deteriorating rather than ending. Every now and then we hear of ships falling victims to pirates, we have to intensify our efforts in this aspect,' he added.
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