The presence of piracy at sea is a direct result of the lack of a government on the shore.
There are poor people all across Africa. Lots of African countries have long coastlines. But no other African countries have piracy problems like Somalia. Their governments, weak/corrupt/brutal as they may be, don't let it happen.
The solution to this problem has to come from inside Somalia. The outside world has been trying to set up a Somali government for the past 20 years, and every effort has failed despite bucketloads of aid. Meanwhile, the northern separatist region of Somaliland has managed to set up a functioning and reasonably democratic government in the area under their control, despite receiving absolutely nothing from the outside world.
In the meantime, as any sub skipper knows, escorted convoys are the best way to stop attacks on merchant shipping. One destroyer from an international force with a patrol chopper should be enough to deter any pirate attacks on a convoy. Unfortunately there's no political will to make that happen.
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