Piracy stymies U.N., Africa, Arab nations

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.N., African Union and Arab nations struggled to respond Thursday to a surge of pirate attacks, authorizing sanctions and calling for international peacekeepers to address the chaos in Somalia that has spawned an upsurge in sea banditry.

The economic reverberations of the attacks widened as the world’s largest container-shipping company said it would begin sending some slower vessels thousands of miles around southern Africa to avoid the perilous waters on the shorter Suez Canal route. Insurance underwriters and brokers said the increased danger off the east coast of Africa was driving up premiums for shipping operators.

The African Union urged the United Nations to quickly send peacekeepers to Somalia, but that appeared unlikely anytime soon. A U.N. peacekeeping operation in the early 1990s saw the downing of two U.S. Army helicopters and killing of 18 American soldiers. The U.S. withdrew, and U.N. peacekeepers were gone by 1995.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to authorize its sanctions committee to recommend people and entities that would be subject to an asset freeze and travel ban for engaging in or supporting acts that threaten peace in Somalia, for violating a U.N. arms embargo, and for obstructing delivery of humanitarian aid.

Pirates have attacked a number of cargo ships with food and other items for some 3.2 million needy Somalis. But it was unclear how that could affect the pirates, who live off cash ransoms dropped in burlap sacks from helicopters or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto skiffs.