The Crazy Life of Somali Pirates | Are They Heros or Villains? | Dhruv Rathee

"Somalia's terrifying pirates" "have looted numerous ships. " "The world sees them as villains. " "But for the Somalians," "they were heroes.

" "Their own Robin Hood. " "In this scenario," "the most difficult task" "is to reach the ship," "tie the rope and climb. " "This attempt isn't always successful.

" "The gangsters from the local Somalian clans," "were given weapons," "in exchange for their permission to" "dump waste there. " "This is known as Guns for Waste. " "While some countries use religion and race to divide its citizens," "the Somali dictators use clan identities to do this.

" "The food and job shortage was so severe across the nation that," "for these young boys, piracy" "became the only way to provide for their household and feed themselves. " Hello, friends! 8th April 2009, a ship with the American flag was passing through the Indian Ocean.

It was called the Maersk Alabama. It was going from Oman to Kenya carrying some humanitarian aid cargo. When it was about 440 km away from Somalia's coast, suddenly, some lights popped up on the ship's radar.

The ship's crew members scanned the area with their radar and saw a small boat moving towards the ship. The only thing they could think of then was, "Not again. " Actually, over the past 24 hours, their ship was approached by similar boats twice, but they had managed to escape.

But this time, as this boat came close, they got a message on the ship's radio. Normally, in this situation, in order to escape such boats, the ships increased their speed. But the problem is that this works only when the pirates are far away.

Because the top speed of such a huge ship cannot be more than 18-20 knots. And the Somali pirates on the speedboat can easily travel at a speed of more than 25 knots. Seeing the pirates' boat getting so close, the captain of this ship, Richard Phillips, set off the alarm.

Everyone ran towards the ship's safe room. There weren't many options to defend themselves. There were some water hoses which could be fired at the pirates, to prevent them from climbing the ship.

But that isn't very effective. But soon they heard the sound of a ladder latching on to the ship. The first Somali pirate had climbed onto the ship.

He was carrying an AK-47 rifle, and while firing it he reached Captain Phillips. 14 of the 19 crew members of the ship had reached the safe room. Two members hid and Captain Phillips with his two companions remained on the bridge.

The 'bridge' is the command centre of a hip from where the ship is operated. Usually, it is the highest part and located at the front of the ship. As soon as the pirates board the ship, the helmsman at the steering wheel started rocking the ship one way and the other.

This caused the pirates' boat to sink, and they couldn't escape. In total, 4 pirates successfully got on the ship. Their leader was the 18 years old, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Musi.

These 4 surrounded Captain Phillips and his 2 crew members, and pointed their guns at them. They told Captain Phillips that they weren't going to kill them. They just wanted money.

Telling them to stop the ship, and Captain Phillips shut down all the engines. The pirates asked about the other crew members. And asked the Captain to bring them.

One of the crew members, Zahid Reza, told the pirates that until the rest of the crew were convinced that everything is fine, they won't come out. But the pirates' leader, Musi, wanted to see the rest of the crew. So Reza agreed to lead him to the rest of the crew, but he will need to leave his gun.

Musi agreed and the two started descending. As soon as they pass by the engine room, someone suddenly came out of the room and attacked Musi. This was the ship's Chief Engineer Mike Perry.

He was hiding there. He stabbed Musi in the hand and locked him up in the safe room with the rest of the crew. Now the leader of the pirates was captured by the crew members in the safe room.

Seeing this, the other three pirates began to get desperate. They weren't sure about what they should do. But they still had Captain Phillips at gunpoint.

After a lot of fighting, these pirates agreed to leave the ship on the condition that all the money carried on the ship, needed to be handed over to them. And in exchange for Musi, they would take Captain Phillips with them. And only when Musi returned to the pirates, would Captain Phillips be returned to the crew members.

To bring this plan into action, a lifeboat was needed through which these pirates could go back. Because their boat had already sunk. But to get the lifeboat down, an electric winch is needed and to operate it, they had to restart the engine.

And for that, the entire crew was needed. So the crew members left the safe room with Musi. As per the deal, Musi was supposed to be returned to the pirates, and, in exchange, the pirates were supposed to release Captain Phillips.

As soon as Musi was handed over to the pirates, Phillips was on the lifeboat at this point, teaching the pirates how to sail the lifeboat. Taking advantage of this opportunity, these four pirates kidnapped Captain Phillips. They dropped the lifeboat on the sea, and left.

This story was marvellously presented in the 2013 film Captain Phillips. Such hijackings had been going on for many years. But those didn't get much coverage in the American news media.

This incident changed this. For the first time, an American ship was hijacked. After that, the crew getting back the ship but the captain being kidnapped by the pirates.

This story had everything to draw people's attention. News channels all over the world, were talking about this hijacking by the Somalian pirates. The biggest question here is, who were these Somali pirates?

Why did so many people become pirates in Somalia? And how was this stopped eventually? Friends, in today's video, let's find out Somalia's story.

Before we get on with the video, I have a small announcement. Only a few days of the Mega Holi Sale are left. All three courses of Dhruv Rathee Academy are available at flat 50% off.

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You can find the link to all these courses in the description below. Or you can scan this QR code. And now, let's get back to the topic of the Somali pirates.

If you look at the map, you will see that Somalia is the most north-eastern country in Africa. With the Indian Ocean on its east and the Gulf of Eden on its north, it is separated from the Middle Eastern countries. Geopolitically, this is an important position.

Because the Arab countries lie right in the middle of South Asia and Africa. About 20% of the global shipping trade is carried out through this area. Now historically speaking, Northern Somalia was ruled by the British, and Southern Somalia was ruled by Italy.

Their ended in 1960 when Somalia became independent and both parts were unified. 1st July 1960, is said to be the Independence Day of this unified nation. And 9 years later, the problems began.

15th October 1969, Somalia's President Abdirashid Ali's bodyguards shoot him dead. After this, their Army Chief General led a military coup and declared himself to be the new president. And so, Somalia became a dictatorship.

While some countries use religion and race to divide their citizens, Somalian dictators do use clans to divide them. In African countries, there are often multiple tribal clans. This is map of Somalian clans.

There's clan-based discrimination in the country, leading to tension and violence. Eventually, this violence turned into a civil war. This civil war reached its peak on 27th January 1991, when rival clans came together to expel President Said Barre from power.

After this, Somalia's central government completely collapses. The clans fight each other to gain control of the country. At this point in time, northern Somalia choose to be independent, and declares itself to be a separate country called Somaliland.

Even today, these two function as separate countries, but most of the other countries around the world don't recognise Somaliland as an independent country. During 1991, due to the Civil War, starvation and disease, within a year, 350,000 people died in Somalia. This was the point where Somalian pirates emerged.

Actually, the thing is, the sea near Somalia is a biodiverse and rich area in terms of marine life. You can see many beautiful coral reefs and many different types of fishes. In fact, the highest concentration of fishes is found on Somalia's coast.

Especially tuna, sardines, shrimps, and rays. With the increase in instability in the country, many foreign fishing vessels came here to take advantage of it. Foreigners started to illegally fish for tuna.

According to a report by the United Nations in 2006, after the collapse of the central government, the coast guard of Somalia stopped working too. The coast guard protects the sea near the country's coast. But without a coast guard, Somalia's waters became free for all.

Fishing vessels from all over the world began illegally taking away Somalia's resources. And the livelihood of Somalia's local fishermen was in danger. According to this UN report, every year, seafood worth around $300 million was being stolen from the Somali coastline.

To fish more, these foreign vessels used steel-made drag fishing nets. In the video, you can see how they are dragged on the seafloor. This causes coral reefs to dislodge.

And along with the fishes, it endangers the future livelihoods of the people living around Somalia's coasts. The poor Somali fishermen did not have any advanced technology to compete with these foreign ships. On top of that, when they complained about these foreign ships, these foreign fishermen would shoot at them with bullets and water cannons.

But this was only one part of the problem. Along with this, foreign companies began dumping toxic industrial waste on the Somali coast. Since the 1980s, European companies have been dumping toxic elements like uranium, lead, cadmium, and mercury in northern Somalia.

But when the government fell in 1991, this trend increased manifold. Earlier, the toxic waste used to be dumped only on the ground. But after 1991, the toxic industrial waste was dumped into the sea.

Many Swiss and Italian companies are blamed for this. Apart from this, waste from German, French, and Italian nuclear power plants and hospitals were also dumping their wastes in Somalia's sea. I would like to mention two companies here.

The Swiss company, Achair & Partners, and an Italian company, Progresso Sri. Officially, they were registered as waste management companies in their countries. But in reality, they were waste trafficking.

Because the thing is, proper waste disposal in Europe was 400 times more expensive than illegally dumping it in Somalia. According to the United Nations, when a European company dumped its waste in the Somali sea, it cost $2. 5 per tonne.

But if the same waste was to be properly dumped in Europe, it would cost $250 per tonne. It's not that all locals were unaware of this. Often these companies used to enter into contracts with local warlords.

The local Somalian goons of different clans, were given weapons in exchange for their permission to dump the waste there. This is called Guns for Waste. This was how weapons started getting into Somalia.

These foreign companies received double benefits. First, they would bring their ships filled with waste, dump the toxic waste in Somalia. And then, the same ships were used to carry the illegally fished tuna.

The Italian mafia was also involved in this. In 1994, Italian TV journalist, Ilaria Alpi, was investigating this with her cameraman, Miran Hrovatin, when they were murdered. These journalists collected evidence of the Guns for Waste trade, and it is believed that they were murdered because of this.

Francesco Fonti of the Italian Mafia told Italian investigators that he used to send toxic waste from Italy to Somalia. And everyone from major politicians and Italy's peacekeeping troops were told to turn the blind eye. Apart from them, other countries like Russia, Germany, and even the USA were involved in this.

In December 2004, a terrible tsunami hit the Indian Ocean. Because of this tsunami, the toxic waste containers in the Somali waters broke and the waste reached the Somali coast. "The tsunami took the lives of some 150 people in Somalia," "and poisoned the precious little water supply that people had here.

" Across many villages, people began to fall ill, they got acute respiratory infections, cough, bleeding gums and mouth, brain haemorrhages, and unusual rashes on the skin. In many cases, people even died. Back then, a local doctor said that throughout his entire career, he had never seen so many people with cancer, as it was during this one year.

So from the perspective of a common Somali citizen, try to imagine the situation. Of what they went through. There was a civil war in the country, poverty and starvation, and on top of that, there weren't enough fish because of illegal fishing, and then all this toxic waste was killing them and their family.

Obviously, Somalis, especially Somali fishermen, weren't happy to see this encroachment in their country. They took over the responsibility of protecting their country's waters and resources. Gradually, they started patrolling together.

Whenever they spotted a foreign illegal fishing vessel, they would attack them. These groups of fishermen started calling themselves Coast Guards. Initially, these attacks were only to protect their rights.

But as they realised that they could make money from this, the piracy started. These fishermen joined hands with the armed local goons and formed their groups like the Somali Coastguards and National Volunteer Coastguards. These groups hijacked foreign fishing vessels and brought them to the Somali coast and then asked for ransom to release the crew.

Once they started getting money, the poor and troubled youth started making it their occupation. And thus they became Somalian pirates. During the early days, these pirates used their normal fishing boats.

But once they started making good money, they bought speedboats, tracking devices, and better weapons. Piracy was more prominent in the Puntland area because the land there wasn't very suitable for agriculture. This is the northern tip of Somalia.

But by 1997, it became challenging to catch the foreign fishing ships because they entered into protection contracts with the local warlords. They began hiring these local goons as armed guards on their decks and giving them anti-aircraft guns. These pirates then realised that they didn't need to limit themselves to the fishing vessels.

There were big commercial cargo ships. They could be targeted. Since they didn't have any armed weapons.

And with this, they realised the real potential of piracy. By hijacking these bigger ships, they got more money and there'd be no security on board. The food and job shortages in the country were so severe that, piracy became the only way for young boys to run their households and feed themselves.

In the meanwhile, in 1998, this Somalian region, Puntland, declared itself autonomous. Declaring itself to be an independent country. This gave the pirates more freedom, and this area became a safe haven for the pirates.

From 2005 to 2012, it was called the Pirates' Capital, especially its city, Eyl. Gradually, piracy turned into an organised industry. Gangs armed with weapons controlled them, and local boys were recruited for it.

When these 16-year-old boys would hijack and bring back a lot of money, a large portion of it was taken by the gangs. These gangs started arming themselves with AK-47s to rocket launchers. Now, it's also interesting to see how did these pirate hijackings actually work?

After targeting a ship, the pirates moved towards it waving their weapons. They hoped that the crew would get scared of their weapons and stop their ship. But if the ship didn't stop, then often, they fired into the air.

Apart from the weapons, these pirates carried a rope ladder with hooks at the end. When they threw this ladder at the ship, the hook would get lodged and they could use it to get on the ship. Once they got on the ship, most crews didn't fight back because only the pirates had weapons.

This was how the pirates hijacked such large ships. Everything happened within 30 minutes. The most difficult task in this scenario was to get close to the ship, hook the ladder, and climb.

The attempts weren't always successful. The success rate of such hijackings is only 20-30%. But once they successfully hijacked a ship, they steered it to some friendly port in Somalia.

There, guards and translators were called to look after the hostages. After this, they asked for a ransom. The ransom would be paid through London's and Dubai's banks, and was delivered to the ship's deck using parachutes like a special delivery package.

After receiving this money, the ship and the crew members would be released. And the pirates shared the ransom among themselves. Half of the money went to the pirates who hijacked the ship, one-third went to the investors who paid for the operation, and the remaining amount was distributed among the guards and translators who looked after the hostages.

Additionally, some money is paid to the banknote checkers to check whether the cash paid to the pirates is fake. In many hijackings, some money is distributed to the poor and disabled people of the local community as charity. This is why, in many areas of Somalia these pirates are seen as Robin Hood.

Many hostages who were kidnapped said that generally, they were treated well. The pirates treated them like average individuals, caught in a bigger game. As justification, the pirates also say that hijacking and asking for ransom for ships, is a sort of legitimate tax because they don't have a central government to charge tax.

That's why, in Somalia's local language, the pirates call themselves Badaadinta Badah. The Saviours of the Sea. Or the coast guard.

Gradually with time, it became an organised system in Somalia. There were organisers, recruiters, financiers, and mission commanders. Investors would even invest in these pirate organisations.

They even had ground support, negotiators, and bankers. It became a proper business model. Because to work as a pirate, they needed boats, oil, weapons, and food.

Often, the poor pirates did not have money for these, so they asked financiers and investors for money. According to a UN Nippon Foundation report from 2011, these financiers would give $30,000 to the pirate groups operating in the high seas and $10,000 to the pirates operating in the Gulf of Eden. By 2008, piracy had become so successful in Somalia that it became the country's #1 most productive industry.

Within a year, it raked in $50 million. According to a BBC report, between 2005 and 2012, pirates hijacked ships in the Somali Peninsula and earned anywhere between $339 to $413 million as ransom. The pirates would get $30,000 to $75,000 for each hijacking.

And an additional bonus of $10,000 for the first pirate to board the ship. In 2011, the menace of the Somali pirates was at its peak. It is estimated that the global economy suffered a loss of $7 billion due to them.

Some famous hijacks were like the hijack of the Saudi super-tanker Sirius Star in November 2008. They had to pay a ransom of $3 million for its release. "A ship, a super-tanker named Sirius Star, that is the size of three aircraft carriers, is by far the largest yet hijacked.

" "They are demanding a $3 million ransom to release the vessel and its crew. " And one from March 2013 when the Greek tanker Smyrni was hijacked which was released 10 months later on a $9. 5 million ransom.

These weren't fake money. This was the real amount given for the release of the hijacked ships and hostages. This money was usually paid by the private shipping companies that owned the ships.

Some companies even started getting insurance known as the Kidnap and Ransom Insurance. So in many cases, it was the insurance companies that paid the pirates. Apart from these, there were 1 or 2 cases where governments paid the ransom amounts.

Friends, let's go back to Captain Phillips' story, which is probably the most interesting story in the history of Somali pirates. I had mentioned this at the beginning of the video. Captain Phillips was kidnapped on a lifeboat.

This lifeboat was dropped into the sea, and the pirates left with Captain Phillips. While the rest of the crew stood watching on the sea. The crew on the ship decided to follow the lifeboat.

But the ship could travel much slower than the lifeboat. They sent some emergency signals too, to the nearest US warship. The USS Bainbridge.

It was about 500 km away. And took 12 hours to get to them. 12 hours later, the warship reached the lifeboat carrying the pirates.

Captain Phillips was still in the pirates' custody. So, the USS Bainbridge kept following this lifeboat. Along with this, two more ships of the US Navy, USS Halyburton and USS Boxer, began moving towards that direction.

The original cargo ship, Maersk Alabama, was told to move towards Kenya. So that the rest of the crew could be safe. On the other hand, the US Navy ships began negotiating with the pirates.

The pirates demanded $2 million. Threatening to kill Captain Phillips if they refused to pay. "The pirates on the lifeboat pointed their weapons at Captain Phillips," "tied up inside the craft.

" "The pirates are demanding a $2 million ransom for the captain's release. " The next day, around 2 AM, while the pirates slept, Captain Phillips jumped into the water to escape. But the pirates woke up at the noise and started shooting.

Captured again, he was back on the lifeboat. This continued for three days. The US Navy didn't pay the ransom, instead, they tried various methods to stop them.

They tried to get them to waste the fuel of the lifeboat. They even used a helicopter to block the way of pirates. The US Navy snipers were at their positions.

The pirates had to remain at sea for another day. Then, the leader of the pirates Musi suggested a deal. By this point, the wound in his hand was getting infected.

So, Musi actually asked the US Navy to help. A team of Navy SEALs approached the lifeboat and Musi went with them. Musi's hand was then treated and was told to release Captain Phillips.

When Musi went back, he told the other pirates to release Phillips. But the other pirates refused. Suddenly, there were strong winds, blowing the lifeboat closer to the US Navy ship.

The pirates reiterated that they'd kill Captain Phillips if their demands weren't met. The Navy snipers loaded their guns and shot dead 3 pirates at the first opportunity. "Execute!

" Only Musi was left alive. And finally, Captain Phillips was rescued from the lifeboat. 18-year-old Musi became the first man to go on trial for piracy in America since 1885.

In 2011, he was sentenced to 33 years in prison and to this day, Musi is serving his sentence in a US jail. If all goes well, it is estimated that he will be released from jail in 2038. You can see one of his latest pictures he has completed his graduation degree while he was in jail.

To control Somalian pirates, in 2009, America, along with other countries, launched an international naval mission, Task Force 151. Similarly, the European Union and NATO have also launched a counter-piracy mission. Meanwhile, China, Russia, and India started sending their warships to deal with the pirates.

In 2011, there were 237 incidents of piracy. 75 in 2012, and only 15 in 2013. The thing that caused the most damage to the pirates was the deployment of armed security guards on commercial vessels.

When these armed security guards started protecting cargo ships too, it became challenging for the pirates to hijack any vessel. Because of the height of the ships, the security guards could easily target the engine of the pirates' speedboats. They could kill the pirates before they reached the ship.

This simple tactic was so successful that no commercial vessel with armed security guards has been hijacked. Along with this, commercial ships increased their speed as technology continued to improve. They installed barbed wires on the lower decks, secure safe rooms for the crew, foam machines, high-powered water cannons, as well as sonic devices on the vessels.

Using these, it became easier to stop the pirates. With this, some Somalian clans started distancing themselves from pirating activities because once some of the pirates got rich, they started buying expensive luxury cars, and got involved with drugs. The traditional order of Somalia's culture started getting disrupted.

From 2017 to 2023, these incidents became so rare that there was no successful hijack of any cargo ship. During this time, 20 warships from 14 countries were patrolling these areas which ended the pirate attacks almost completely. And then the Hamas-Israel war began in 2023.

For this, the US Navy ships that were patrolling this area diverted their focus towards Yemen's Houthi rebels. Somali pirates saw this as yet another chance and on 14 December 2023, after so many years, a cargo vessel MV Roen was hijacked. In March 2024, the hostages of this hijacking were rescued by the Indian Navy.

After a 40-hour operation, 35 pirates surrendered. On March 23, these pirates were brought to Mumbai and handed over to the Mumbai Police for prosecution. But the incidents aren't over yet.

On March 12, 2024, a Bangladeshi ship was hijacked, which was released a month later after paying a ransom of $5 million. In November 2024, the pirates hijacked a Chinese fishing ship. And here, interestingly, the security guards on this ship, joined the Somali pirates and helped them in the hijacking.

They demanded $10 million as the ransom to release this ship, But after negotiations, they settled for $2 million. And after paying this amount, this ship was released only 2 months ago. Overall, this issue isn't as simple as it seems.

Considering the history of Somalia, you can get an idea of what the Somali people think about this. When a Somali news website surveyed the people, it was found that about 70% of Somali people support piracy as a form of national defence. In an interview with the Pulitzer Center, a pirate said that those people should be labelled 'pirates' who illegally enter the Somalian waters.

The ships that stole fish from Somalia and dumped toxic waste on the Somali people. It is easy for other countries to control pirates. But the toxic and nuclear waste dumped in Somalia's waters, no one has bothered to clean it up.

Nor has Somalia been given any sort of compensation for this. International organisations say that the root cause of this piracy is poverty and unemployment. The places that see the most instances of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, have the most number of pirates.

A similar story is playing out in Nigeria. The Gulf of Guinea has become a new hotspot for pirates. Here, Nigerian pirates loot oil tankers.

The Niger Delta in Nigeria is called oil rivers because a large quantity of oil is produced here. Big multinational companies make billions of dollars from this oil. But the people living here feel that the oil is taken from their land.

And let alone any profit, their environment is being destroyed because of this, there's an uprise in diseases like cancer, they are the ones to bear it. The locals, fed up with this, destroyed the oil pipelines, kidnapped the workers of the oil company, and started looting the oil tankers in the sea. But injustice from one side cannot be the answer to the injustice from the other side.

We should not forget that most of the pirates are not poor, helpless people they are the local gangsters. So finally, I would like to leave you with this quote. Revolting against injustice is a sign of humanity.

But if revolution takes the form of more injustice, then it becomes useless. Once again, let me remind you that only a few days of the Holi Sale remains. Those of you who haven't been able to buy these courses yet, this is a good opportunity for you.

Use the coupon code HOLI50 The courses are in Hindi with English subtitles, like my other videos. They follow the same style and format, and focus on teaching you life skills in an in-depth manner, ones that you aren't taught in school. If you liked this video, then you can find more such country case studies on my YouTube channel.

There's an equally interesting story about North Korea. How do the ordinary people spend their lives in North Korea? Click here to find out.

Thank you very much!