Manama: Jamal Ahmad, 32, is convinced that he is a gentleman defending his country. "We are not pirates. We are gentlemen, defending our shores against foreign fishermen. It did become a business, but it was forced upon us because we were attacked. We have bills to pay and families to care for," Jamal, who has just started a life sentence, recently told the BBC from his sweltering cage in a stone fortress outside the main commercial port of Bossasso in Puntland.
Most of the other pirates had been pushed out of Eyl, a small coastal town in the desolate north, the centre of Somalia's lucrative pirate industry. It took the new government a strong combination of persuasion from Islamic leaders and uncompromising action from the police.
In a poor country such as Somalia with almost non-existent opportunities, turning into a pirate is an irresistible temptation for many desperate young people keen on earning money.
The ransoms offer them so much money that they ostensibly splash it, building big houses and buying the best four-wheel vehicles, and attracting starry-eyed women flocking to pirate villages. However, not everyone is smitten by the new elite.
The flashy lifestyle in a country where the twin threats of famine and more civil deaths are looming large have raised concerns among local population about children dreaming of turning into pirates.
