A top US commander today said piracy in Somalia can only be defeated if the international community helps restore governance in the poor, lawless African country.
Adm. Robert Willard, chief of the US Pacific Command, said navy patrols alone cannot stop the hijacking of ships if pirates' bases onshore are allowed to operate without interference. The international community is spending millions of dollars a day maintaining a flotilla of warships to protect key shipping lanes off East Africa.
"The organisers, the funders are the central problem ... but the international community has been unable to determine how to tackle the problem onshore," Willard told a regional forum in Malaysia.
"Clearly, one thing is to help Somalia recover from being the ungoverned state that it is," he said.
"Unless the international community goes to the root, and not the far end of the problem, it won't be solved. AP
