US Navy to Establish New Red Sea Task Force

 Defense News published on 13 April 2022 an article titled "Combined Maritime Forces Establishes New Naval Group to Patrol Red Sea Region" by Megan Eckstein.  

The multinational Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East will stand up a new Combined Task Force-153 to address maritime threats in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.  The U.S. Navy will lead the task force initially, but will hand leadership over to a regional partner.  At any given time, the task force will consist of two to eight ships, which is not an increase in the present number of ships in the region but an effort to improve coordination and effectiveness.  They will operate from the Suez Canal through the Bab el-Mandeb strait to the Yemen-Oman border and will address human trafficking and smuggling of both legal materials like coal and illegal weapons and drugs.  

Great Decisions 2020 Topics

The Foreign Policy Association is now selling its Great Decisions 2020 publications and packages.

Great Decisions 2020 includes my contribution on Red Sea security and the following additional topics:

--Climate change and the global order;
--India and Pakistan;
--Modern slavery and human trafficking;
--U.S. relations with the Northern Triangle;
--China's Road into Latin America;
--The Philippines and the U.S.;
--Artificial intelligence and data.

Eritreans Continue to Flee to Ethiopia and Sudan

African Arguments published on 15 January 2019 an article titled "With Ethiopia's Border Now Open, Why Are Eritreans Still Fleeing to Sudan?" by Michael Emile Kynaston Jones, Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

The border between Ethiopia and Eritrea reopened in September 2018. Between 12 September and 2 October 2018 more than 10,000 Eritreans entered UNHCR reception camps in Ethiopia. There have also been steady movements of Eritreans into Sudan, although numbers are elusive. Continued Eritrean National Service conscription and economic hardship account for most of the departures. The durability of Sudan's smuggling networks also play an important role.

Evolution of Somali Piracy

The Institute for Security Studies posted on 21 November 2018 a nineteen minute video titled "Tackling Somali Piracy on Land and at Sea" by Denys Reva.

The video discusses the question whether enough is being done to address the root causes of piracy in Somalia. The answer is no because some pirates have given up on piracy in favor of other criminal activity such as armed robbery, narcotics smuggling, and human trafficking.

Maritime Crime off the Horn of Africa

The University of Copenhagen Centre for Military Studies published in September 2018 a major study titled "Navigating Changing Currents: A Forward-looking Evaluation of Efforts To Tackle Maritime Crime Off the the Horn of Africa" by Katja Lindskov-Jacobsen and Julie Hoy-Carrasco.

The report notes that pirates in Somalia shifted their focus away from piracy towards more profitable illegal maritime activities such human trafficking and weapons smuggling. The authors argue this new situation calls for interventions aimed at building stability through countering maritime crime that is equally agile and/or comprehensive both in terms of the types of crime being targeted and the geographical scope.

Improving Security in the Western Indian Ocean

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) published on 23 May 2018 an analysis titled "From Djibouti to Jeddah, the Western Indian Ocean Needs Security" by Christian Bueger, Cardiff University, and Timothy Walker, ISS.

Twenty littoral countries in southern and eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula adopted in 2009 the original Djibouti Code of Conduct that deals with maritime security threats. In 2017, they added the Jeddah Amendments. The guidelines now cover piracy, trafficking of arms and narcotics, illegal wildlife trade, illegal oil bunkering and theft, human trafficking and smuggling, and the illegal dumping of toxic waste. The issue now is how to move from declarations of intent to effective action. In addition, three key states--India, Pakistan and Iran--are not members of the amended Djibouti Code of Conduct.

Trafficking in Persons: East Africa and the Horn

The U.S. Department of State has just released the 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report. It ranks countries into 4 Tiers: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watchlist, and Tier 3. No country in East Africa and the Horn was included in Tier 1.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are in Tier 2: do not fully comply with Trafficking Victims Protection Act's (TVPA) minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with these standards.

Djibouti is on the Tier 2 Watchlist: same as above but is delinquent in several respects.

Eritrea, South Sudan, and Sudan are in Tier 3: governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

Somalia is a special case.

Eritrean Refugees at Risk

Foreign Policy in Focus published on 10 April 2014 a piece titled "Eritrean Refugees at Risk" by Dan Connell, a professor at Simmons College and expert on Eritrea.  The analysis describes the misfortunes of Eritreans leaving the country for a variety of reasons.  Some of them fall into the hands of human traffickers. 

Major Study on Somali Piracy

The World Bank, UN Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol recently published a book length study titled "Pirate Trails: Tracking the Illicit Financial Flows from Pirate Activities off the Horn of Africa."  The study estimates that between April 2005 and December 2012, pirates claimed an estimated $339 million to $413 million in ransoms.  This massive study looks at the role of criminal networks, distribution of the proceeds, moving the proceeds, investing the proceeds, and makes a series of recommendations for countering the issue of financial flows. 

For journalistic accounts of the report, see "The Horn of Plenty: How Piracy Became a $413m Business" by Nick Kochan in the 4 November 2013 The Independent and "Somali Piracy: More Sophisticated Than You Thought" in the 2 November 2013 The Economist.