Mozambique Channel Anti-Piracy Efforts Continue to Grow

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Background

Bilateral and multilateral anti-piracy efforts in the Mozambique Channel are continuing apace, with South Africa and Mozambique signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will be extended to include Tanzania. The proposed trilateral MoU has won praise from the United States. Other initiatives include joint South African, French and Mozambican maritime surveillance and training exercises.

Comment

Signed on 8 November at the South Africa-Mozambique Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security Ministerial in Pretoria, the MoU complements a previous agreement, signed by the two governments in June 2011, authorising joint naval and air anti-piracy patrols in Mozambican waters.  Officials at the latest signing have spoken of the need extend the agreement to a trilateral MoU that includes Tanzania, to further prevent the southward expansion of operations by Somali pirates. United States officials have praised the agreement, with the US ambassador to Mozambique, Leslie Rowe, describing it as ‘a very innovative accord’, particularly in view of the reluctance of Mozambique to allow US or European patrols into their waters.^[1]

An exception to that reluctance is France. Together with South Africa, French forces are active in regional waters, conducting maritime surveillance and anti-piracy patrols. The October 2011 edition of the biannual Franco-South African exercise Operation Oxide, which usually alternates between South Africa and the French island départment of La Réunion, was held in Mozambique. It involved officers of the Mozambican Navy joining the French and South African frigates Nivôse and SAS Mendi. Key aims of this year’s exercise were promoting co-operation and improved interoperability between the French, South African and Mozambican Navies, particularly in anti-piracy operations. 

In other news, Radio Mozambique announced on 13 November that the country now possesses a permanent monitoring system for maritime piracy. Valued at some US$9.8 million, the facility will be used to help address piracy and illegal fishing.

Awareness of Somali piracy has grown markedly in Mozambique over the last year. This follows the December 2010 hijacking of the Vega-5, a Mozambican fishing vessel, off the coast from the central port of Beira, well inside the Mozambique Channel. Until it was recaptured in the Arabian Sea by the Indian Navy in April 2011, the vessel was used as a mothership to launch further attacks in the western Indian Ocean.

The Mozambique Channel is a highly strategic waterway, carrying 30 per cent of the world’s oil trade and almost 100 per cent of South Africa’s maritime trade. Given the large percentage of South African trade passing through the 2,400 kilometre-long Channel, the threat posed by Somali pirates, as they move south in search of easier hunting grounds, is of serious concern to Pretoria. With the second-longest coastline in Africa (after Somalia), Mozambique lacks the resources to police the Channel on its own. States such as South Africa and France therefore have a vital role to play in the regional waters.

Leighton G. Luke

Manager

Indian Ocean Research Programme

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