Navy patrols and armed guards on ships have helped supress once rampant Somali piracy, but without political solutions on the ground attacks are likely to return, the World Bank warned on Thursday.| Political solutions to be financed by the World Bank and administered by the UNHCR, of course... |
The report noted that a long term solution is "first and foremost political". It said, "Pirates rely on onshore support to conduct negotiations and to secure safe access to coastal territories. In turn, politically powerful figures capture large portions of the profits associated with piracy," it added, calculating that between $315-385 million has been paid in ransoms since 2005.
But the cost to world trade is higher still, the report said, noting that while an estimated $53 million was paid on average annually in ransoms since 2005, with an estimated $18 billion yearly loss to the world economy in terms of increased cost of trade.