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Before the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, Somalia was possibly best known around the world for the Hollywood blockbuster Black Hawk Down, which is the tale of United States troops pinned down under heavy fire after their helicopter is shot down over the war-torn capital of Mogadishu.

The movie was based on an incident when the nation was receiving humanitarian aid from the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) during Somalia’s civil war that was waged in 1986. The inter-clan fighting ended with no positive result, however, and the nation still does not have a consolidated central government.

“My life is no better than before,” said pirate Najib, who refused to give his real name, during an interview with the Shanghai-based News Morning. Speaking at his “hideout” in Eyl, a small town on the east coast of Somalia, he explained he made $10,000 a month as a fisherman before the local waters were devastated by over-fishing. He said he was forced to find another way to feed his family. “Trust me,” he said, “it is not my fault. I don’t want to be a pirate.”

Xu Weizhong of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations said: “The poverty brought on by decades of civil war and the lack of an effective central government in Somalia are the main reasons for rise in pirates.”

“This is a very old pattern of behavior. Poverty, chaos and the lack of a central authority is the root of piracy,” said professor Andrew Lambert, a naval strategy expert at King’s College London.

Somalia has had no effective government since former president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991 by Mohamed Farrah Aidid - the man responsible for the US Black Hawk incident - which sparked bloody clashes between rival factions.

By Peng Kuang