Pocztówka z Somalii

Eyl, wschodnia Somalia, współcześnie. Na redzie portu kołyszą się dwa porwane przez piratów statki - tankowiec i kontenerowiec.

The only obvious sign of the millions of dollars worth of ransom money that have flooded ashore in recent months were the dozen or more shiny new cars parked between crumbling stone houses close to the shore.

"Night and day, they drive their cars up and down" said a fisherman named Abdul.

"We are all against the pirates here," insisted a businesswoman named Abdi Hirsi, "they have brought bad culture here".

"We are not pirates," declared Jamal Akhmed, 32, who has just started a life sentence, "we are gentlemen, defending our shores against foreign fisherman."

"These pirates are thieves and cowards," said Bossasso's police chief, Osman Hassan Uke "We will defeat them. They are not organised in the way we are organised."

In Bosasso's port, a handful of captured pirate boats lay on the quayside. Moored near them was a broken speedboat with the words "Puntland coastguard" painted on the side. A harbour official refused to confirm reports that it represented the entire Puntland navy.

"That is a military secret," said Colonel Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed stiffly.