PAK’S SOMALIA DEAL SPARKS CONCERNS OF PARALLEL MILITARY INFLUENCE IN HORN OF AFRICA

Today, this progress is under threat and this time it is not a result of piracy but politics.

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New bilateral security deals risk undoing the very cooperation that helped stabilise the region. These arrangements, which intend to operate outside the agreed channels of the African Union and UN, risk fracturing the coordination and weakening the broader regional response.

Thanks to joint efforts by different international groups such as the EU's naval mission (EU NAV-FOR), EUCAP Somalia, the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), and regular patrols by the Indian Navy, security at sea has greatly improved. These efforts helped protect trade routes and supported Somalia in building its ability to guard its own waters. The EU’s Operation Atalanta has since escorted thousands of ships, stopped pirate attacks, and helped deliver aid. EUCAP also trained Somali coast guards to better patrol their coastline.

In addition, the Indian Navy, without seeking control or headlines, quietly maintained a stabilising presence through anti-piracy patrols, The CMF, based in Bahrain, brings together more than 30 nations under a common cause.