applying targeted sanctions against those involved in piracy activities; and
requested a report from the Secretary-General within two months on the modalities of establishing specialised courts to try suspected pirates as recommended by the Special Adviser and expressed its intention to “urgently consider” the establishment of such courts.
On 14 April, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported that there had been a steep rise in piracy off the coast of Somalia in the first three months of this year. Ninety-seven attacks (resulting in 15 hijackings) had been recorded, compared with 35 in the same period last year. According to IMB there had also been a dramatic increase in the violence and sophistication of techniques used by Somali pirates.
In April, Mahiga continued his consultations on post-transitional arrangements for Somalia. There seemedto be a growing rift between the international community and the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG). In early April, the TFG, ignoring advice from the UN and the Council, decided to extend its mandate for a year beyond the end of the transitional period in August. Moreover, in a 4 April letter to the Secretary-General, Somali Prime Minister Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed demanded that all UN agencies working in Somalia should move to Mogadishu within ninety days.
The Somali president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and the prime minister boycotted a high-level consultative meeting convened by Mahiga in Nairobi on 12 and 13 April. It was attended, however, by the speaker of the Somali parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, as well as by the presidents of the Somali regional states of