The Somali pirates slung their AK47 rifles over their shoulders as they peered into the dark hold, using torches to light up the bowels of the Ukrainian freighter.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes,” said Sugule Ali, commander of the so-called Voluntary Marines for Somalia, speaking to The Sunday Times over a satellite phone from the MV Faina. “We were horrified that people were bringing these weapons through Somali waters.”

The ragtag band of armed gangsters could have been forgiven for thinking they had hit the jackpot as they surveyed the tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and Russian-made antiaircraft guns stored in the hold. This weekend they were demanding a $20m (£11.3m) ransom for the cargo, about 10 times what they usually ask to give back a vessel.

The thought of the Faina’s vast arsenal finding its way into lawless Somalia, where Islamists are threatening to overrun a weak government, has horrified Washington. Half a dozen American warships have encircled the Faina to stop any of the 33 Soviet-era tanks and other weaponry being taken ashore.

Russia dispatched a frigate to the region, ostensibly to protect its nationals among the crew of the commandeered vessel. At the same time, Moscow was eager to seize an opportunity to reassert its influence in the region, a former battleground of the cold war.

Not since those days has the Horn of Africa seen so much military posturing, but despite some recent successes by France, the international community seems powerless to take on pirates who, with outboard engines and grappling irons, have run rings around the most formidable navies.

What started with efforts to extract “taxes” from foreigners found “poaching” in Somalia’s tuna-rich waters has turned into an industry, as more and more gunmen enlist in the pirate ranks, encouraged by the payment of $30m in ransom money this year alone.

This year’s 60 pirate attacks are more than twice the total for 2007. A dozen vessels and 259 crew are being held in and around the port of Eil.

France has twice launched successful commando raids against pirates this year to rescue its nationals, once when 30 crew members of a luxury cruise ship were taken hostage and again when a couple were released from their yacht by armed frogmen. Ransom money was recovered and several pirates were captured and sent to France to await trial.

This has done nothing to put off their comrades-in-arms. “We are prepared for any assault by commandos,” Ali insisted. “We have 60 people ready to defend the boat. We can protect ourselves. I’m not going to tell you what weapons we have, but let’s just say we have enough.”

According to some reports, at least one member of the ship’s crew has died of natural causes since the vessel was stormed as it neared the Kenyan coast. The weapons were said to be destined for southern Sudan although Kenya insisted that they were for its own armed forces.

Hostages speak of wild mood swings among the gunmen: many are addicted to khat, the mild narcotic, and can get jumpy when suffering withdrawal symptoms. Another source of anxiety for the pirates is the refusal of many Somali money changers to accept any more of their $100 bills. The French and Germans are alleged to have included false money in the latest ransom payments.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, enjoying his role at the head of the European Union’s rotating six-month presidency, has been pressing EU members for an international naval mission to ward off pirates who have turned the shipping lanes around Somalia into one big shooting alley. This has provoked scepticism in some quarters.

“There’s already a combined taskforce looking at terrorism, looking at piracy,” said Jason Alderwick, a defence analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “How is another body going to help?”

Military vessels from various countries have been escorting shipments of food aid into famine-prone Somalia, but pirates have been known to pilfer cargoes under the noses of naval commanders.

Ali said that negotiations with the Faina’s owners were continuing. “We have not yet decided what we will do with her if the fine isn’t paid,” he added. “We have no plans to unload the weapons, but we have a time frame and time is running out.”

Piracy on such a scale would not be possible if Somalia had a strong government. It does not. Instead, the warlords have carved it into fiefdoms where only guns make the law.

In the 1990s, countries such as Taiwan began taking advantage of the chaos, poaching tuna with impunity in Somali waters. Then the pirates, mostly former fishermen, began boarding the boats of these “bio-pirates” and demanding a “tax” or a share of the booty.

It did not take the fishermen long to discover there was more money to be made from holding crew members hostage if they were westerners or, if they were not, demanding a ransom for the return of the vessels.

The pirates were largely put out of business two years ago when the hardline Union of Islamic Courts seized control of Somalia. But the Islamists were ousted by Ethiopian forces, leaving a power vacuum, and the pirates returned.

Ali insisted that his men had no links to Somalia’s resurgent Islamist groups, but many analysts believe the Islamic militias have abandoned their ideological opposition to piracy as they continue to wage war against a weak government and its Ethiopian backers. “We have no link with any political group,” Ali said in the interview. “We’re independent.”

Rashid Abdi Sheikh, of the International Crisis Group, said the Shabaab, an Islamist youth movement, had used piracy to help to bring in weapons and attract foreign fighters.

“It’s particularly interesting to see that the pirates are using the same rhetoric as Islamists like the Shabaab in saying that they are standing up for Somalia, protecting Somali interests, and that’s a message that resonates with many people. It’s all hogwash of course,” Sheikh said.

The Faina was anchored about five miles off the coast, near the town of Hobyo, 400 miles north of Mogadishu, the capital. Six US warships are within 10 miles of the Faina and officers have warned that they will launch an assault if an attempt is made to unload any of the T-72 tanks or other weapons.

Ali says that his men will look after the crew. The pirates ferried dozens of goats to the Faina through the American blockade to mark Eid, the end of Ramadan, with a feast. The animals were barbecued on deck.

It can only be hoped that the pirates do not run out of khat.

PERILOUS WATERS
Pirate action around the Horn of Africa is increasing

February 2007: Pirates hijack cargo ship delivering United Nations food aid to Somalia

July 2007: UN appeals for more effective action against piracy off Somali coast

March 2008: British captain released after being held hostage by pirates for 46 days

April 2008: French cruise yacht’s 30 crew members freed from pirates after daring commando raid, below

September 2008: French couple on yacht rescued from pirates by French special forces

October 2008: Pirates demand $20m (£11.3m) for arms-laden Ukrainian freighter

Video: Somali Pirates hijack ship carrying armed forces hardware

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