Tag: MNDF

Expatriate workers climb to safety during Male’ apartment fire

No injuries have been reported from a fire that broke out of the Galolhu Feeroz Lodge building in Male’ this morning, after expatriate workers living at a fourth floor property escaped the blaze using ropes to climb to safety, according to new reports.

Haveeru reported that the Fire and Rescue arm of the Maldives National Defense Force’s (MNDF) put out the fire shortly after arriving to the property, which is owned by the Donad Garment Factory.

Despite damage to the fourth floor apartment, a textile storeroom situated below the location of the fire was reportedly undamaged.

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MNDF drafted to aid government dengue response over “epidemic” fears

The Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) has been drafted in to help with efforts to try and control an outbreak of dengue fever that the government has described as “an epidemic”.

President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday announced that he had requested the assistance of defense forces in collecting information about the virus from island and atoll health councils after four deaths linked to the affliction were recorded in the space of two days.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Major Abdul Raheem of the MNDF confirmed that the country’s armed forces would be working within a wider government task force to try and establish ways of better controlling the spread of the virus.

The Maldives has been battling a growing number of dengue fever cases in 2011, with 300 cases and five deaths reported in just the first two months of the year. There has been a reported spike in the number of cases of the virus reported in Male’; cases that were linked earlier this year by one health expert to a construction boom in the capital. However, most of the fatalities have been islanders who died in transit to regional hospitals, with many of the most serious cases having affected children.

Raheem did not specify what exact role the MNDF would take in efforts to combat the virus, but added that the defence force would be working as part of a taskforce based within a male’ school to try and coordinate a response to the outbreak.

“This is the first time we have been involved in efforts to help fight dengue fever,” he said. “But we have experience in working to control other [diseases].”

In addressing concerns about incidents of dengue across the Maldives, President Nasheed yesterday said that the MNDF would be used to obtain information about the virus from atoll health authorities in conjunction with councils and the Local Government Authority overseeing their work.

With the current outbreak now being treated as an epidemic by the government, the president called on members of the public and everyone involved in disease control to provide genuine information about the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, anyone found to be providing falsified information is said to risk facing possible prosecution from the authorities, Nasheed warned in a press release.

Early symptoms of the virus include fever, joint paint and a distinctive rash and headache, although it can be difficult to distinguish from the milder Chikungunya disease that can last for up to five days. Even healthy adults can be left immobile by dengue for several weeks while the disease runs its course.

Government criticism

Despite announcing plans to take action against the disease, the government has come under some criticism this week within the Majlis for perceived failures in its handling of the local dengue situation.

Amongst the criticisms, People’s Alliance (PA) MP Abdul Raheem Abdulla asked Health Minister Dr Aminath Jameel if she was considering resignation “since based on what is being said here your sector has very much failed,” Dr Jameel replied that she did not believe that was the case.

The health minister, replying to another question from MDP MP Ali Waheed during Tuesday’s (June 28) parliamentary session, said the ministry was providing information to islands through teleconferencing and stressed that controlling mosquito breeding grounds was key to combating the rise in dengue fever across the country.

“Mosquitoes don’t travel very far,” she explained. “Therefore, it’s mosquitoes from nearby areas that are spreading it. Controlling mosquito [breeding] is needed from the public and individuals as well. We are working together with island councils and the Male’ City Council.”

Jameel claimed that the Addu City Council had also taken up initiatives and organised activities to try and combat dengue.

“An additional problem that we encounter is the quick turnover of doctors in the country’s hospitals and health centres,” she said. “So they are not very familiar with the protocol here. We are facing that problem as well. But as I’ve said, this can’t solved without controlling mosquito [breeding].”

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Uncertainty remains over scale of Maldives piracy threat

With two separate attacks this month by Somalian pirates within a 30 nautical miles of Trivandrum, India, one maritime expert has warned that the Maldives’ growing use as crossroads for shipping routes make its own waters and businesses an increasingly attractive target in the future.

Tim Hart, a security analyst specialising in piracy from around the Horn of Africa for Maritime and Underwater Security Consultants (MUSC), told Minivan News that the two attacks reported this month off India’s southern coast raised wider security issues for the Maldives that have previously affected other nearby archipelago nations like the Seychelles.

While the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) this week said that the country’s territorial waters had not come under direct attack from piracy originating from Somalia, a spokesman said it shared the UN’s concerns over possible threats in the Indian Ocean.

Tourism angle

Increasing numbers of refugees from Somalia are flooding into northern destinations such as Kenya and Yemen, and with limited opportunities for those remaining, Hart said piracy was at believed to be the country’s second largest source of revenue.

In this lucrative market place for piracy, the UN has expressed concerns that the Indian Ocean is becoming in key battleground in trying to stem maritime attacks as suspects move increasingly further from Somali shores.

Hart said that as cargo fleets moved closer to the Maldives to try and ensure safer shipping routes, pirates were likely to follow in the search of viable targets.

Aside from the potential impact to the country’s own shipping enterprises, the maritime expert added that tourism had also been affected by piracy in other Indian Ocean nations.

“The Maldives is a large group of islands that can make monitoring difficult like in the Seychelles,” he said. “The [Seychelles] back in 2009 had a pirate issue that seriously affected its tourism. This has also been seen around the coast of Kenya in areas like Mombasa, where cruise ships were coming under attack in some cases.”

According to Hart, although cruise ship attacks are relatively isolated occurrences, the UK parliament has recently raised issues over an incident in Kenya that directly targeted tourists on board a vessel – an event that significantly affected cruise interest in the region.

“With the Maldives’ territories made up largely of ocean, (the country is 99 per cent water) the concern is that pirates might become influenced to make similar attacks there,” he added.

Targeting isolated resorts would be outside the traditional modus operandi of Somali pirates, Hart said, explaining that they only attacked targets other than merchant vessels out of opportunity.

“It really depends on how desperate a particular group of pirates becomes, generally larger merchant vessels offer the largest incentives for ransom,” he said. “To set foot onto an island, highjack and kidnap tourists and then try to get back to Somalia using their vessels would be very difficult.”

Despite the challenges posed by such an attack, Hart said that it had not been unheard of for pirates to mount land-based assaults in areas like the Niger Delta.

“Pirates are known to be very adaptive in terms of their methods and targets,” he said. “Wherever someone has tried to prevent them from operating, they have changed their target areas and tactics.”

However, Maldivian tourism officials and insiders have identified piracy as a potential security concern for the resort industry.

Adapting to piracy challenges

Hart claimed that the Maldives could take some lessons from the Seychelles in terms of further tightening maritime security against potential acts of piracy, he added that adopting a fix-all approach to the problem was impractical.

“With regards to piracy, it is difficult to set out a one-stop shop in terms of reducing risks, though I would suggest looking at how the Seychelles has operated in 2009 and 2010. Because of recent monsoon weather [in the Indian Ocean region], defining attack areas and establishing operational islands is very difficult,” he claimed. “However, anything to support additional maritime surveillance to protect islands and [local] waters would be encouraged.”

In terms of a national strategy for piracy prevention, MNDF Major Abdul Raheem said earlier this week that the Maldives is already collaborating with international naval forces – under wider UN military programmes – to patrol and monitor its territorial waters from pirate threats.

Raheem said that despite the serious concerns raised over potential piracy attacks in the Maldives, the MNDF would continue with existing initiatives to try and protect its waters in collaboration with naval forces from other nations like India, Turkey and the US. These nations have taken part in patrols across the country in the last few years.

“Piracy is seen as a major problem in the Maldives and we are very concerned about possible attacks occurring in our waters,” he said at the time. “However, we have not recognised piracy threats flaring up [around the Maldives]. With help from other nations, particularly India, we are continuing patrols.”

Raheem stressed that some Somali vessels had drifted into the country’s waters – often with engine troubles – though it was not clear if they were potential pirate threats or refugees trying to escape the country. Hart claimed that the dilemma over confirming legitimate pirate suspects was a major difficulty in policing international waters against attacks.

“The difference between a pirate and a refugee is often a crew that have thrown their weapons overboard. You have to catch pirates in the act, otherwise it can be impossible to try and stop them.”

From his experiences of studying emerging pirate threats off the Horn of Africa, Hart said it was increasingly common – even in the Indian Ocean – for Somali vessels to wish up on local coasts with no traces of weapons on them, then claiming that they are fishermen lost at sea.

“In certain cases, as opposed to dumping weapons at the threat of being spotted by naval vessels, some pirates will use reconnaissance and GPS systems and have weapons stored securely nearby in order to prepare for possible attacks on vulnerable targets.”

Hart said the situation was further complicated by the tens of thousands of Somalian refugees trying to escape the country that is wrought with political and social instability.

Just this week, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency reported significant increases in the number of refugees from the country, with 20,000 nationals estimated to have attempted the arduous journey to escape to a Kenyan refugee camp in the last fortnight alone.

According to the report, the Dadaab refugee camp built initially for 90,000 people is now home to 360,000 displaced residents. The AFP report suggested that 1.46 million people are thought to have been displaced in Somalia.

Hart said that the domestic difficulties within Somalia, along with its geographic location, had made piracy a lucrative revenue source amidst the country’s many socio-political uncertainties.

“Piracy is a symptom of the problems being seen on the land. A lot of people have been trying to escape the civil war in the country’s south and have been trying to move north to areas like Yemen and Kenya,” he said. “Pirates have also used the very strategic [maritime] location that the Horn of Africa offers and exploited it.”

Amidst the difficulties of trying to find domestic solutions within Somalia as a means of confronting piracy, the UN Security Council has continued to discuss the formation of international courts and prisons to try and bring convicted pirates to justice.

However, Hart said that the effectiveness of these prisons as a potential deterrent to Somali nationals turning to piracy was uncertain.

“At present in Somalia, piracy is the country’s second largest industry. There are already huge risks, but you go out to sea and potentially have huge gains to make,” he claimed. “One possible deterrent would be being arrested and being held in prison. However, even these prisons are likely to be a better environment than life for many in places like Mogadishu – the Somali capital.”

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MNDF plays down immediate piracy dangers despite UN fears for Indian Ocean

The Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) said it has not detected increased threats to the country’s territorial waters from piracy despite UN concerns over the growing attacks within the Indian Ocean.

MNDF Major Abdul Raheem told Minivan News that despite small vessels originating from Somalia washing up in the Maldives’ territorial waters – often with engineering problems – no reported attacks or activities linked to piracy were believed to have occurred in the country. Raheem conceded that potential pirate threats remained a “major problem” in ensuring the security of the archipelago, which depends on tourism for as much as 90 percent of its economy.

The comments were made as the UN Security Council yesterday reportedly raised fears that growing numbers of pirate vessels originating from Somalia were attacking ships within the Indian Ocean.  The council members claimed that tougher international sanctions would be required to punish suspected pirates.

Raheem said that despite the serious concerns raised over potential piracy attacks in the Maldives, the MNDF would continue with existing initiatives to try and protect its waters in collaboration with naval forces from other nations like India, Turkey and the US, who have all taken part in patrols across the country.

“Piracy is seen as a major problem in the Maldives and we are very concerned about possible attacks occurring in our waters,” he said. “However, we have not recognised piracy threats flaring up [around the Maldives]. With help from other nations, particularly India, we are continuing patrols.”

Concluding the first ever official visit of its forces to the Maldives last month, the Turkish navy told Minivan News that it was visiting the country as part of wider regional anti-piracy initiatives supported by the  NATO military alliance.

A naval spokesperson at the time said that the visit of the TCG Giresun to the Maldives was not linked to any specific threat or incident of piracy, but more a reaction to Somali pirates extending their operations from the Horn of Africa further into territories around the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

“We are trying to promote understanding to fight piracy, so one way to do this is to visit ports like Male’,” said the spokesperson at a media briefing during the ship’s visit. “The attacks of the pirates have widened into the Indian Ocean with one of the last incidents occurring approximately 250 nautical miles away from the shores of Male’, so NATO has widened the number of ports we are to visit to include Indian Ocean destinations like Mumbai and Male’.”

The MNDF confirmed that it received reports of small boats – believed to be Somali in origin – arriving into the Maldives’ territorial waters.

However,  Major Raheem said that the people discovered on board the boats were not confirmed to be pirates and were as likely to be refugees that had become lost at sea and drifted into the country. “We have observed some small boats drifting into our territorial waters often due to engineering problems,” he added.

While local security forces suggest the Maldives is not directly coming under attack from pirates, according to a report by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, 171 pirate attacks have been recorded this year by the UN as occurring off the coast of Somalia.

During the UN Security Council debate held yesterday, new international legislation relating to establishing international piracy courts to try suspected pirates were being discussed to try and combat concerns about attacks.

Speaking during the debate, the AFP cited India’s UN envoy, Hardeep Singh Puri, as raising concerns about the dangers posed to South Asian nations from pirate attacks. The debate included establishing special jails in the Somali autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland to hold convicted pirates.

Experts suggest that a growing number of Somali pirates are moving deeper into the Indian Ocean towards the Maldives as they come under increased pressure from international task-forces sent to limit piracy around the horn of Africa.

As a result of this movement, maritime security has become a notable security concern for the Maldives, even around the country’s secluded resort properties.

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MNDF helping 39 homeless following Saamiliyya fire disaster

Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) officials are providing assistance to 39 people who have become homeless after a serious fire incident that burned down Saamiliyya, a residential building in Galolhu ward.

After the incident last week, the landlord and those living in the property paying rent were left homeless and were relocated to the Social Centre in Maafannu, a building mostly used for sporting purposes and other recreational activities.

MNDF officials have set up partitions and provided mattresses and blankets for those left homeless after the fire.

Male’ City Council told local media that the council had decided provide all assistance possible to those affected by the fire, including financial assistance.

Saamiliyya was destroyed occurred last Thursday, and two people were hospitalised as the blaze burned the residential building to the ground.

Residents of neighboring houses and furniture store Allora were also impacted by smoke from the blaze.

MNDF Spokesperson Major Abdul-Raheem told Minivan News the residents of the destroyed down house were now being looked after by Male’ City Council.

‘’We provided them blankets, mattresses and other necessities to make the place adequate,’’ said Abdul-Raheem. ‘’The list of homeless people initially had  39 names on it, later some amendments were made.’’

He said the MNDF was  now doing a damage assessment.

‘’It will take like two more days to determine the total cost of the damage,’’ he said. ‘’The police are currently investigating the cause of the fire.’’

Meanwhile local newspaper Haveeru reported the landlord’s suspicions that the fire incident was an arson attack by a relative disputing how the property was to be divided.

A woman currently living in Social Centre told the paper that she had lost everything she had gained throughout her entire life.

‘’I was able to save nothing. Clothes, household items or documents – none whatsoever,’’ she told Haveeru.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said it was too early to state whether the incident was an arson attack.

‘’We are investigating the case and  waiting for the incident report from the MNDF. We will refer to it and determine the cause of the fire,’’ he said.

Few non-commercial properties in the Maldives are insured.

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President forms committee to control gang violence in the Maldives

President Mohamed Nasheed has formed a special committee to curb gang violence and gang related crimes in the Maldives.

The committee consists of National Security Advisor Ameen Faisal, Home Minister Hassan Afeef, Attorney General Abdulla Muiz, State Defence Minister Mohamed Muiz Adnan and Prosecutor General Ahmed Muiz.

The President’s Office said that the committee had their first meetings yesterday afternoon and had decided to establish a special task force to curb serious and organised crime.

The task force will be led by Maldives Police Service and will consist of officials from the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS), Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Education, Courts of law, Prosecutor General’s Office, Maldives Customs Service, Ministry of Health and Family, Ministry of Human Resources Youth and Sports, Immigration Department and officials from the Local Government Authority.

The work of the special task force will be to secure the citizens of the country, isolate and arrest those who commit offences that disrupt the peace and harmony, to rehabilitate criminals and to offer opportunities for them to be back in society after they are reformed.

‘’This committee assures the citizens that we will constantly work to reinstate the peace in this country in national level,’’ the committee said in a statement via the president’s office. ‘’We will continuously try to gain attention and cooperation from the implementing agencies, businessman, NGOs, political parties and the public.’’

The committee said that in order to achieve its goal, all the institutions should corporate and work together.

This week the committee will meet the Speaker of Parliament Abdulla Shahid, National Security Committee [241 committee] of the parliament, Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz and other judges at the Supreme Court.

Recently a ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Rasheed presented an amendment to the Clemency Act which requires upholding death sentences if upheld by the Supreme Court and later withdrew it for the Penal Code and Evidence Bill was not yet passed.

In 2008 Rasheed said 104 cases of assault were sent to Prosecutor General, increasing to 454 in 2009 and 423 cases in 2010.

More recently 21 year-old Ahusan Basheer was stabbed to death on Alikileygefaanu Magu.

On June 2008, the major gangs in Male’ gave a press conference at Dharubaaruge and declared ‘’peace’’ and vowed to work together.

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Fire triggered from Orchid house’s electricity meter board, says MNDF

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) Fire department has said that investigation into the fatal fire in Orchid this week had revealed that the fire was sparked by a faulty electricity meter board in the house.

‘’The fire started from the meter board and spread, and turned to a huge fire,’’ said the MNDF in a statement, suggesting that the cause of the fire incident was electricity.

MNDF said that the fire department first received the information at 9:21am in the morning, and the fire department attended the area and tried to control the fire at 9:27 am.

At 9:57 that morning, MNDF said that “90 percent” of the fire was under control.

‘’While they were trying to control the fire firefighters received information that two persons were stuck inside , as soon as officers knew about it, a team from the fire department entered the house searching for the two persons,’’ MNDF said. ‘’When officers found the two persons they were inside a 15 ft-9 ft room build on a wooden deck which was severely damaged by fire when officers reached there.’’

MNDF said that officers had noticed that neither of the two persons were showing any movement when they were discovered and that their bodies had been severely burned by the fire.

There were three women and one man in the house when the incident occurred, two of them died while the third was a maid in the house who escaped on her own, said the MNDF.

The man received minor injuries during attempts to save the other two women, however after he escaped through the window to get someone to assist him to rescue to the two inside, the fire spread and he was unable to get back inside afterwards, according to the MNDF.

The identities of the two victims were identified as Iuthisham Adam and Dhon Sitthi of Haaji Edhuru, the mother of both Deputy Health Minister Fathimath Afiya and Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the UN in Geneva, Iruthisham Adam.

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MNDF commences Vilufushi crocodile hunt

Officers from the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) are conducting searches for crocodiles near Thaa Atoll Vilufushi after islanders reported sightings of two of the creatures on Thursday.

Officers from the MNDF Central Area on Friday searched the Vilifushi lagoon and nearby uninhabited islands, but there has been no sign of the presence of the amphibians so far.

According to the MNDF website, officers from the Laamu Kahdhoo post will remain on duty in Vilufushi during the operation that is set to continue for a week.

A six-foot crocodile found in Lhaviyani Naifaru on February 1 was the believed to be the second crocodile found in as many months within Maldivian waters.

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Pirate kidnapping did not occur within Maldivian waters, confirms MNDF

The alleged abduction by Somali pirates of a Danish family who set sail from the Maldives last month on their yacht is not thought to have occurred within the country’s territorial waters, defense officials have confirmed.

Denmark-based newspaper the Copenhagen Post today reported that seven Danish nationals – thought to include a family of five and two deckhands – were confirmed by the country’s Foreign Ministry to have been abducted on their way to the Red Sea by Somali pirates.

The Danish Foreign Ministry said it was unable to comment on the reports or clarify whether the alleged attack took place 300 kilometres off the coast of Somalia When contacted by Minivan News.

Major Abdul Raheem of the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) was nonetheless able to confirm that security officials in the country had not received any information concerning the kidnappings or any other kind of “terrorist activities” occurring within the territorial waters of the Maldives of late.

Raheem added that security services in the Maldives would not be reviewing maritime security measures or advice when sailing in and out of the country following the alleged kidnappings.

Experts suggest that a growing number of Somali pirates are moving deeper into the Indian Ocean as they come under increased pressure from international task-forces designed to try and limit piracy attacks around the horn of Africa. As a result of this movement, maritime security has become a notable security concern for the Maldives.

In December, a Minivan News investigation reported that although there had been no confirmed attacks or incidents of piracy in the Maldives, maritime protection groups and European security officials still believed the country has the potential to become a target for pirate vessels thought to have originated from Somalia.

However, despite the abducted party having reportedly set off from the Maldives in a 43-foot long yacht called ING around the middle of last month, Major Raheem said that the MNDF had not been provided with any information of the kidnappings or been asked as yet to assist within any potential investigation into the alleged attacks.

Both the Maldives Police Force and the President’s Office were unable to comment on the issue at the time of going to press.

According to the Copenhagen Post report, the eldest 17 year-old son of the kidnapped family wrote on a blog that their vessel was halfway between the Maldives and the Arabian Sea by Tuesday of last week (22 February) and there had been no problems during the voyage.

However, by the following morning, the paper claimed that the ship’s occupants had managed to issue an emergency call as they came under attack from suspected pirates. The Danish warship “Esbern Snare” is reported to have been sent to the area where they are thought to have gone missing.

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