London | Oct 30

AFP - British merchant ships travelling around the Horn of Africa will for the first time be able to carry armed guards to protect them from pirates, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Sunday.

Officials said a legal ban will be relaxed so that shipping companies can apply for a licence from the government to carry weapons on board in the most dangerous areas, mainly off the coast of Somalia.

“We are now going to say to British-flagged ships that they would be licensed if they want to have security guards, armed guards on those ships,” Cameron told the BBC.

“The evidence is that ships with armed guards don’t get attacked, don’t get taken for hostage or for ransoms. So we think it’s a very important step forward,” he said.

The plan could see commercial, passenger and cargo ships carrying firearms off the coast of Somalia, in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea and the wider Indian Ocean within a month, a spokesman for Cameron’s office said.

Experts agree that private guards do deter pirates, but their use can cause problems of legal jurisdiction and spark concerns about the use of mercenaries, questions of liability and private militarisation of the seas.

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