Look for a deserted island Ever heard of Socotra? It is a small archipelago of four islands, one large and three dots on the map in the Indian Ocean. It lies some 150 miles east of the Horn of Africa and 240 miles south of the Arabian Peninsula. The island is very isolated and through the process of speciation, a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on Earth. Socotra is part of the Republic of Yemen. The main island is about 80 miles long and 20 miles wide and has mountains that rise to a height of about 5,000 feet.
Discoverers Socotra has had many discoverers in its history, the latest being the Somali pirates who have set up a refueling hub in order to enable their attack craft to stay restocked for longer periods at sea and pose a greater hazard to shipping. Despite an international naval presence in the region, seaborne gangs have been exploiting political turmoil in Yemen to pick up fuel, and possibly other supplies including food, sources told Reuters.
Been used for months “Socotra has been used for months if not longer,” said Michael Frodl, with C-LEVEL maritime risk consultancy and an adviser to Lloyd’s of London underwriters, citing intelligence reports he was privy to. “It is perhaps the most important refueling hub for hijacked merchant vessels used as motherships, especially those operating between the Gulf of Aden and India’s western waters, mainly off Oman and increasingly closer to the Strait of Hormuz. A hijacked merchant vessel, unlike a hijacked dhow, has a voracious thirst for fuel and needs a very well stocked refueling station,” Frodl said.
Pirates A Yemen government official said that a month ago authorities had captured 20 people believed to be pirates on the island and handed them over to authorities in Yemen’s nearby southern port city of al-Mukalla on the mainland. A source said separately the 20 people had been on a regular commercial ship, but added that 16 Somali pirates were taken into custody in recent days and were being detained on Socotra. “There was a lot of piracy north of Socotra during the north east monsoon and it is likely they have been using the island,” the source said. “Pirates use the beaches on the mainland not too far from Mukalla to collect fuel, and presumably other equipment.”
Ransoms Somali gangs, who are making millions of dollars in ransoms, are becoming increasingly violent, and are able to stay out at sea for long periods and in all weather conditions using captured merchant vessels as mother ships. The crisis is costing world trade billions of dollars a year.
Pirate history “Socotra has been a favorite stomping ground for pirates for centuries as both Marco Polo and the great 14th century Islamic scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta attest,” said J. Peter Pham, with U.S. think tank the Atlantic Council.
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