EU could send police mission to Somalia

BRUSSELS - Defence ministers on Monday (18 May) discussed a French proposal to enhance the EU naval operation fighting piracy off the Somali coasts with a police training mission in the African country that could start in September.

"There was a French proposal discussed today on a police training mission in Somalia, but no decision was taken yet," Czech minister of defence Martin Bartak told a press conference after the meeting.

Asked if the mission could start as early as September, as the French have proposed, Mr Bartak answered it was too early to say now if this would be the case.

"The rationale of the mission is that piracy does not start at sea, but on the ground, in Somalia," he explained, stressing the need for state-building assistance, including prisons that can keep any convicted pirates behind bars.

The diplomat added that if the mission is approved, it would be a separate effort, not part of the Atalanta operation already fighting piracy at sea.

Since 1991, Somalia has had no effective central government, with years of fighting between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease leading to the deaths of up to 1 million people.

Many Somalis, frustrated at illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in their waters by rich countries have joined pirate gangs, which use high-speed boats, carry heavy weapons and live off ransoms taken from captured commercial and food aid ships passing through the Gulf of Aden.

EU defence ministers also debated the possibility of extending Atalanta's operational range to the Seychelles, an archipelago of islands off the southeastern coast of Africa, which has also been plagued by piracy.

The EU is in close contacts with the authorities in the Seychelles and a decision to extend Atalanta's range could be taken relatively quickly, if needed, EU sources told this website.