Regional Approaches to Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa
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Demessie Fantaye Regional Approaches to Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa Demessie Fantaye Regional Approaches to Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa About the author Demessie Fantaye is an independent consultant and researcher, previously employed at the Department of Political Science and International relations, College of Social Sciences, Addis Ababa University. His research interests include the mechanisms of indigenous conflict resolution in pastoralist communities in Ethiopia, the nexus of security, development and conflict in Ethiopia in particular and the Horn of Africa region in general, and maritime security issues in the Horn of Africa region. Demessie Fantaye has published several book reviews, articles and reports focusing on the developmental policies of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and on maritime security issues. Imprint: Published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Addis Ababa Office P.O. Box 8786, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel.: +251-11-123-32 45/46, Fax: +251-11-123 38 55 Email: [email protected] Website: www.fes-ethiopia.org ©Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung 2014 “Commercial use of all media published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is not permitted without the written consent of FES. The material in this publication may not be reproduced, stored or transmitted without the prior permission of the copyright holder. Short extracts may be quoted, provided the source is fully acknowledged. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung or of the institution for which the author works.” 4 Regional Approaches to Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa Contents 1. Objectives and Methodology of the Study............................................................7 2. Introduction.........................................................................................................7 3. Conceptualizing Maritime Security.......................................................................10 4. Sources and Manifestations of Maritime Insecurity in the Region.........................12 4.1 Sources ..............................................................................................................12 4.1.1 State Failure in Somalia.............................................................................12 4.1.2 Weak Maritime Governance and Maritime Security Apparatus in the Region............................................................................................13 4.2 Manifestations ...................................................................................................14 4.2.1 Piracy.........................................................................................................14 4.2.2 Chemical and Toxic Waste Dumping.........................................................15 4.2.3 Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing............................................16 4.2.4 Trafficking in Small Arms and Light Weapons...........................................17 4.2.5 Illegal Migration and Human Trafficking...................................................18 4.2.6 Maritime Delimitation and Competition over Maritime Resources.........18 4.2.7 Landlocked States.....................................................................................19 5. International Response to Maritime Insecurity in the Region...............................20 5.1 International Law............................................................................................20 5.2 United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions and Related UN Initiatives..................................................................................................21 5.3 Other Multilateral and Bilateral Initiatives to combat Piracy..............................23 5.3.1 Multilateral Initiatives...............................................................................23 5.3.2 Naval-Military Initiatives..........................................................................24 5.3.3 Non-State Actors.......................................................................................25 6. Regional Approaches to Maritime Insecurity in the Region..............................26 6.1 Regional Initiatives.............................................................................................28 5 6.1.1 Djibouti Code of Conduct..........................................................................28 6.1.2 IGAD Somalia Inland Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Piracy...........................................................................................28 6.1.3 Regional Strategy against Piracy and for Maritime Security in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean..................................29 6.1.4 Kampala Process........................................................................................29 6.2 National Level Initiatives and Programmes..............................................................29 6.2.1 Accession to Relevant International Conventions...........................................29 6.2.2 Incorporation of Provisions Criminalizing Piracy into Legislation and the Legal Code................................................................................................30 6.2.3 Military and Naval Actions against Piracy........................................................30 7. Complementarities between Regional Efforts and the International Community’s Initiatives in the Sphere of Maritime Security......................................31 8. Problems and Differences between Regional Efforts and International Community Initiatives in the Sphere of Maritime Security........................................32 9. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................34 10. Recommendations and Entry Points..........................................................................35 11. Sources..................................................................................................................37 6 Regional Approaches to Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa 1. Objectives and Methodolo- structural view of maritime insecurity in the Horn of Africa. This has led to a situation in gy of the Study which immense resources and efforts have been directed to the fight against piracy, This study, commissioned by the Friedrich- while other sources of maritime insecurity Ebert-Stiftung (FES), seeks to unravel the have been sidelined. The initiatives against dynamics and impact of maritime security maritime piracy have been characterized in the Horn of Africa region. It also has the by duplication of effort and competition objective of assessing the strengths and between different agencies and entities. weaknesses, synergies and contradictions While it is undeniable that the efforts of existing initiatives and programmes against piracy have achieved impressive related to maritime security in the region. results, regional initiatives have received Ultimately, the study aims to identify the negligible support. components of a distinctly African and specifically regional approach to maritime States in the region and the primary regional security issues. organization have sought repeatedly to articulate a distinct agenda and set of Methodologically, the study is based on interests in the sphere of maritime security a review and analysis of the literature. but they have also had to adapt to the Furthermore, the author carried out a series circumstances. More specifically, the of interviews with officials of the Inter- governments in the region have cooperated Governmental Authority on Development, with international initiatives and in the IGAD Security Sector Programme (IGAD, process garnered resources and benefits IGAD-ISSP) and the Ethiopian Shipping Lines derived from the global focus on piracy off (ESL). The author also relied on field notes the coast of Somalia. and data gathered from research visits to Somalia (Puntland) to study Somali piracy in 2009 and 2010. 2. Introduction The study argues that efforts to improve maritime security in the Horn of Africa region have assumed a pattern in terms In this study the region will be defined in of which the concerns and perspectives terms first elucidated comprehensively by of the developed world have tended to Buzan (1983, 1991). He assumed that the overshadow the agenda of the states in use of the term “region” “means that a the region. This dichotomy is revealed, distinct and significant subsystem of security for instance, in the interpretation of the relations exists among a set of states whose sources of maritime insecurity, the focus fate is that they have been locked into of initiatives and the informal division of geographical proximity with each other” tasks concerning maritime security that has (Buzan, 1991:188, quoted in Berouk 2009: emerged in the region. While as far as the 2). Accordingly, the assumption is that the international community is concerned the states of a region are intertwined in terms primary concern is maritime piracy, actors of existing and emerging patterns of conflict in the region have a more complex and and cooperation (ibid.). 7 Regional Approaches to Maritime Security in the Horn of Africa Conventionally, the term “the Horn of Ethiopia and Uganda are landlocked Africa” (or simply “the Horn”) refers to the (Figure 1). north eastern part of Africa bounded by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and which The Horn of Africa is characterized by in