вЂњThat upset the other clans,вЂќ he said, and power began to shift away from the pirates.

вЂњAll of a sudden you have authority - not based on tradition or religious learning but based on big guns and robbery on the high seas,вЂќ said author J. At the same time, some Somali clans - conservative by nature - had come to resent the pirate criminal network that disrupted the traditional order with flashy cars, narcotics, and prostitutes. That removed an important stronghold where the pirates had been able to operate. airstrikes and an African Union military force on the ground, played an important role by bringing some order to the war-torn country, experts say.ДЄs part of the African Union mission in Somalia, Kenyan troops in 2012 captured the port of Kismayo and chased out al-Shabaab fighters. International efforts to roll back al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia, including U.S. And there is still debate about what caused Somali piracy to trail off.ДЄ big part of the effort came on land. The rapid decline in piracy off the coast of Somalia has taken the shipping industry and governments by surprise. Ransoms hit an all-time high in March 2013, when the Greek tanker Smyrni was released ten months after its capture upon a payout of $9.5 million. In November 2008, the pirates captured a Saudi supertanker, Sirius Star, and eventually released the ship for a ransom of $3 million, which was parachuted onto the deck. Because of SomaliaвЂ™s lawlessness, the armed gangs could moor cargo vessels along the coastline without having to worry about coast guards or police. Unlike pirates elsewhere in the world, the Somalis would seize an entire commercial vessel and crew and demand a ransom. Piracy off Somalia rapidly became such a concern for shippers and sailors because of the scope of the piratesвЂ™ hijackings. WhatвЂ™s more, for all its success in the Indian Ocean, the Somali playbook appears unsuited to fighting piracy in the two corners of the world where it is still raging: West Africa and Southeast Asia. Many fear that the United States and other navies operating in the area could declare victory and go home, potentially allowing pirates to return. The bad news is that while the counterpiracy recipe seems to have worked, shipping companies are already warning about complacency. This year, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported only three incidents.Дefeating SomaliaвЂ™s scourge of piracy required unprecedented cooperation by different navies, efforts to boost stability ashore, and, perhaps most importantly, the use of armed guards on commercial vessels, a radical break with shipping practices and tradition. No cargo ship has been successfully hijacked off the coast of Somalia since the spring of 2012. Д«ut after wreaking havoc in the sea lanes off the Horn of Africa, with more than 200 attacks every year at their peak, the once-notorious Somali pirates have virtually vanished. They stole headlines and HollywoodвЂ™s imagination as khat-chewing villains in the hit film Captain Phillips. With little more than skiffs, ladders, and Kalashnikovs, the pirates of Somalia once hijacked giant cargo ships, extracted millions of dollars in ransom, and forced the worldвЂ™s navies to send warships steaming to the Gulf of Aden. AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT (Photo credit should read ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images) Fighting a losing battle against the sand that has already completely covered the old Italian port, Hobyo's scattering of rundown houses and shacks looks anything but the nerve centre of an activity threatening global shipping. But his remains a Robin Hood narrative of Somali piracy as a struggle by dispossessed fishermen against vessels from Europe and Asia violating Somalia's exclusive economic zone and poaching its abundant tuna under naval protection. Garfanji, was behind some of the most spectacular catches in modern piracy - including the 2008 capture of a Ukrainian ship packed with tanks and weapons - and at barely 30, Garfanji now runs a small army.

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JEAN-MARC MOJON Mohamed Garfanji, Somalia's top pirate boss, stands on sandy dunes just outside the central Somali coastal town of Hobyo as he watches the outline of a hijacked ship anchored off the coast on August 20, 2010.

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