No Nintendo game this Xmas? Blame Somali pirates

Alarmed at the growing number of attacks off Somalia, international merchant shipping is edging closer to doing the unthinkable in peace time: by-passing one of world’s most vital trade routes.

Somali pirates have been plundering ships off the Horn of Africa for years, but the recent surge in attacks has spilled out into the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, threatening access to the Suez Canal.

Now big firms employed in moving everything from oil, gas and coal to toys, are urgently considering whether to travel round South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope instead.

“Despite all the publicity over piracy it will really hit home when consumers in the West find they haven’t got their Nintendo gifts this Christmas,” said Sam Dawson of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).

“If there isn’t a let up and active intervention by navies in the region, the impact on trade will come within weeks or months because we’ve gone from one attack every couple of weeks to four in a single day,” he said.

“These attacks are no longer 50 to 100 miles off Somalia they are 200 miles plus off the coast… this is not just guys in little fishing boats anymore. We know there are three probably ex-Soviet trawlers acting as mother ships,” Dawson said.

Read More on CNN by Stefano Ambrogi