By Michael Palin,

MADRID (Sunatimes)- As soon as the monsoon period finishes in Indian Ocean waters, from next week, Operation Atalanta against piracy may become increasingly complicated. "When the sea quietens down, as we say, there will be a massive exodus." With this sentence Juan Ruiz Casas, captain of the Galicia amphibious assault vessel, summarized the predictions during a video conference from the operational vessel with the heads of the General Staff of Defence and Defence Minister Carme Chacon.

The air surveillance unit and the Galicia itself have confirmed "much activity" in the pirate camps in Somalia preparing their autumn campaign. Until now, strong winds and high waves have prevented the small boats and their mother ships from going into the high seas, but it is now only a matter of days. Ruiz Casas stressed that the
peculiarities of the assault vessel - with three helicopters on board, plus capability for naval infantry assault units and an on-board hospital - give the Navy more resources, more suitable for the mission, than in the vessels sent on previous deployments, that is, frigates.

Seychelles' Support for Our Fleet

The warning by the commander of Galicia and the previous meeting of Manuel Rebollo, chief of staff of the Navy, and Jose Jimenez, chief of staff of the Air Force, with JEMAD [chief of the General Staff of Defence] Jose Julio Rodriguez, and with commanding Chief of Operations Jaime Dominguez Buj, to talk about the status of Operation Atalanta, coincides with the visit to Spain of Seychelles President James A. Michell, with whom the government is negotiating several agreements to improve that country's support for the Spanish fishing fleet in the Indian Ocean, especially in terms of security.

Chacon also received information about the status of the mission from Eduardo Riedel, commander of the Infanta Cristina patrol craft, which is sailing in the Gulf of Aden, and from Francisco Banos, head of the air force unit in Yobuti, from where the P3 Orion reconnaissance aircraft operates.

By Michael Palin,

Somalijournal.net, Somalia's news source!