The breakaway region of Somaliland has officially opened a maximum security prison, built with United Nations funding, to hold Somali pirates.On Tuesday the Hargeisa pirate prison was officially opened in Somaliland’s capital. It can hold 460 people and currently houses 297 prisoners, 88 of whom are convicted pirates, ABC News reports.
Although the prison was officially opened this week, prisoners began to arrive in November last year. However, only pirates picked up by the Somali Coast Guard and tried in local courts have been imprisoned, as the facility is not yet accepting pirates captured by foreign countries.
Yury Fedotov, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which oversees anti-piracy efforts, met with the President of Somaliland, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud and Minister of Justice Ismail Aar to discuss the UNODC’s counter-piracy work in Somalia.
"Critical to the success of fighting piracy is ensuring that judicial provisions on land are in place,” Fedotov said. “UNODC are working with the Somaliland authorities in their judicial reform process and prosecution services in a bid to step up responses to what is clearly a scourge both to maritime trade and travel and to local development."
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