Peter Fabricius
Foreign Editor
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma and visiting Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete have agreed to forge “vibrant co-operation” in the fight against the growing scourge of Somali piracy off the East African coast.
Kikwete said after their meeting in Pretoria yesterday that piracy was a growing problem for Tanzania as it had spread south from Somalia under pressure from Operation Atlanta – the international naval fleet.
The pirates have begun operating in waters off Mozambique, and the SA Navy has been patrolling the Mozambique Channel for more than four months. “It is of concern to us because at the beginning it was confined to the Gulf of Aden,” Kikwete said. “Now it has begun to move south towards our territorial waters.
“We’ve had about 27 incidents of pirate attacks in Tanzania and our navy is confronting them from time to time. It’s becoming a problem because it has increased the costs of insurance premiums for ships and has increased transport costs because ships have to take longer routes trying to evade the pirates. It has also increased costs of bringing trade to our ports, also taking goods from the East African ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.”
Sipho Dlamini, spokesman for the Department of Defence, said the talks were part of a broader discussion being conducted by SADC countries entailing a regional strategy to combat piracy and other maritime crimes such as the dumping of toxic waste, trafficking of humans and drugs, and fish poaching.
Meanwhile, formal relations between Tanzania and South Africa were yesterday upgraded and broadened from the current presidential economic commission to a binational commission, which now also includes non-economic areas of co-operation.
This article was posted by MaritimeSecurity.Asia via iol.co.za. To find out more, please visit MaritimeSecurity.Asia
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