DUBAI // A senior ship's officer whose captain was shot dead in a gun battle with Somali pirates called yesterday for merchant crews to be weapons-trained and armed to fight off attacks.
Captain Maqsood Khan, spokesman and security officer for the UAE-owned cargo vessel MV QSM Dubai, said the incident last week had rocked the UAE shipping community. It is thought to be the first time the captain of a Gulf-owned ship has been killed on duty.
"Arms should be allowed on board. The crew should be trained to fight back," said Capt Khan. "The pirates know that the crew is unarmed and that is why they attack us. Taking pirates to the international court and filing cases against them is of no use."
Though many ships hire armed security guards, it is a legal grey area and is too expensive for many ship owners.
Capt Khan was speaking for the first time about the attack on the ship last Wednesday, when pirates from the Puntland region of Somalia stormed the vessel and took control after a fierce gun battle in which Captain Syed Jafar Jafrid was shot dead. The crew found him lying in a pool of blood, Capt Khan said.
"When the naval forces got on board, the pirates panicked and fired indiscriminately," he said. "It was a fierce battle. Captain Jafri was shot from close range. I think they shot the captain in anger."
The vessel, with 24 crew and a cargo of sugar, was travelling from Brazil to Somalia when it was captured. "We had taken all precautions and stayed far away from the Somali coast," Capt Khan said.
"But the pirates knew where we were and attacked us in the Gulf of Aden where all the naval forces are present."
"This is a shock for the UAE shipping industry," said Capt Khan. "It was a shocking and tragic incident. The captain was my batchmate and had been working in this company for two years now."
About 80 sailors from the mixed naval forces boarded the vessel, surrounding and arresting the seven pirates.
Capt Jafri, who was 61, was from Pakistan; his body will be sent to Karachi via Dubai in the next couple of days, said Captain Khan.
Experts said incidents in which the crew or captain of a UAE-hijacked ship have been harmed are rare.
"The captain has been held hostage and even injured before, but to my knowledge this is the first case where they shot and killed the captain," said Riad Kahwaji, the chief executive of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. "This murder is an indication of the threat of piracy. It is a dangerous issue, and in no way less than terrorism. There were no casualties in previous instances, but that cannot be considered as a norm. These men are armed and dangerous."
Mr Kahwaji said that experts are looking at the possibility of arming ships. "International marine laws do not allow merchant ships to carry weapons. However, there are views among experts these days that suggest training and arming of crew members. If not arms, they could be trained on how to handle such situations." Discussions are also under way about whether armed private security guards should be stationed on ships. While such security is used by some shipping firms, its legality is a "grey area", experts said. In March, private security guards on board the UAE-owned cargo ship MV Almezaan shot deand killed a pirate attempting to hijack the vessel off the coast of Somalia.
However, some experts, including Peter Lehr, a piracy expert from St Andrew's University in Scotland, argue that arming ships would only exacerbate the problem. "The more weapons you have on board merchant vessels, the higher the risk that violence at sea increases," he said.
Mr Kahwaji pointed out that the problem needs to be tackled on the ground in Somalia, rather than at sea.
"A big question has been put to the international community, and they have to solve it by going on the land and taking joint efforts to solve the problem from there." said Mr Kahwaji.
Joint patrolling efforts by international navies and NATO forces have helped only marginally in curbing the threat.
"The patrolling has resulted in pirates moving from coastal areas to the deep ocean. This is an indication that pirates now have mother ships moving in the deep sea. Larger efforts are needed, which should be a joint efforts by all countries," Mr Kahwaji said.
Dr Theodore Karasik, director of research and development at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said UAE authorities should take steps to protect its ships. "The UAE ships, boats and dhows are coming under increasing attacks, causing a threat environment. Something has to be done by UAE authorities," he said.
The International Maritime Organisation has repeatedly called for multilateral cooperation among countries to curb attacks by pirates. An IMO report on piracy in Somalia states that the number of attacks off of East Africa rose increasingly as 2008 progressed. There were 135 attacks during the year; pirates seized 44 ships, and more than 600 sailors were kidnapped, said the report.
@Email:pmenon@thenational.ae
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
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'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness'
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg and Rachel McAdams
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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RESULT
Esperance de Tunis 1 Guadalajara 1
(Esperance won 6-5 on penalties)
Esperance: Belaili 38’
Guadalajara: Sandoval 5’
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20specs
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
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States of Passion by Nihad Sirees,
Pushkin Press
Pathaan
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