Somali pirates pose a great threat to Maldives- US Military

An US Military commander has warned that the Somali pirates pose “particular problems to Maldives.”

Admiral Robert Willard, head of the 300,000-troop Pacific Command, said that Somali pirates were skirting pressure by moving deeper into Asian waters and pose the greatest threat to Maldives.

"It's remarkable that 28 nations combining their maritime forces together in the Gulf of Aden have not been able to defeat this challenge," Willard said at the Asia Society on a visit to Washington.

Willard said he recently visited Maldives and President Mohamed Nasheed told him that "his problem was that either abandoned pirates or pirates that were lost in the middle of the night in their activities, or otherwise detached from their motherships, were now landing in the Maldives."

Meanwhile, lately a large number of Somalis are being found drifting into Maldivian waters. It is a big concern for the people of Maldives since this might be the beginning of a piracy network in the Indian Ocean.

Yesterday, some islanders found an alleged hand grenade floating in the reefs of an uninhabited island of Dhaalu Atoll.

Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) earlier said that officers who searched a drowned dinghy, which is believed to be a dinghy belonging to Somali pirates, bought ashore in Baa Atoll discovered 11 bullets and a bullet shell inside the vessel.

On 1 June 2010 a dinghy with 6 onboard was found floating in Maldives waters and was rescued by local fishermen off the coast of H. A. Makunudhoo, northernmost tip of the Maldives. On 16 May 2010 MNDF rescued an Iranian fishing boat 75 miles west of Huvadhu Atoll with 20 people onboard.

An abandoned boat suspected to be belonging to Somali pirates was discovered off Laamu Atoll just north of Huvadhu on 27 April 2010. In December 2009 fishermen in Addu atoll spotted a similar boat with seven Somalis in distress drifting off S. Hithadhoo, southernmost tip of the Maldives.

The issue of maritime piracy that is concentrated off the coast of Somalia and growing in its sophistication and reach in the Indian Ocean is a major security concern to an island national such as the Maldives.

The people of Maldives are expressing concern and fear on the frequency of dinghies that are suspected to be associated with piracy in the Maldivian area.